Tekken 24: Day Two
by Winterfall007
Summary: The 5 AM hour is up! Hwoarang continues to try and force the plane down before it reaches it's destination. Jin and Ling get closer while mapping out the details of the mission. Alex contunes to race his way to Hwoarang.
1. Introduction

My name is Hwoarang...

Six months ago, if you told me that I'd be living in a small metropolitan area in central Illinois, alive, and with a good amount of cash, I would of told you that you were full of shit. But that's the truth. It is late fall in this city of Peoria, and I'm currently living here.

A lot happened after I killed Lee. Ling confessed that she had a feeling that he was with the agency, but she didn't want to make blind accusations. She went back to the States a couple hours later. I never got to say goodbye. At least Jin was able to talk to her.

Hours after it ended were we still at the ATU. I was able to get a couple hours of sleep before I was debriefed. Jin got a surprising phone call from the lawyers representing the Zaibatsu. Supposedly, Heihachi's will stated that only a blood relative of the Mishima Family could run the company. Jin was the only one alive and able to do the job, seeing as somehow Kazuya's body was missing. He reluctantly took the job.

I wasn't surprised when he sold the company the next day for a shitload of cash. But I was surprised when Jin gave me a check for ten million dollars. Since we were both going into witness protection, we put the money in a Swiss bank. At least there, nobody would know about it.

It was nice to know that Jin and I would both be in the same city. I figured that I'd be living alone, but that would have been too nice. Instead, the feds stuck me with an agent to serve as my bodyguard. That was funny, I thought. After all that I had gone through, _I_ needed a bodyguard? Please, if I was in trouble, all I would need is a gun or my feet and the opportunity.

Now here I am, adjusting to a city that I think I'll never get used to. My agent bodyguard says it can get pretty cold here in the winter. Now I can stand cold. I had enough of it back in Korea. But the Midwest certainly isn't Korea. The summer's here are agonizing. The heat is dry, and get so fucking muggy. The past month we've dealt with fall weather and it's been nice. But now, it's getting colder. It's December now, and the agent is telling me to look for a tree.

I've got other things on my mind. Lately, I've been dreaming about Ling. I haven't heard from her since she left that day. Now that I mention it, I haven't even heard from Le Carre. It's times like these I thank God Jin is here. It would be impossible for me to try to start over again with nobody there to back you up. Money is one thing, but to try and live someplace where you don't know anyone and don't know anything about where you live is too tough.

I ended up buying a house in this little suburb called West Peoria. It seems like a tight knit community, and I certainly don't fit in with it. Jin ended up buying a mansion up on north side. The view from his front porch is enough to make artistic photographers drool. He's currently living under a different name, and I'm not. I like my name too much to exchange it for some other name like Fred or Mark. I've got nothing against those names, I just happen to like mine better.

Right now, I'm sitting in my car, waiting at a red light about five minutes from the house. I'm probably going to have to wrap this up. My phone's ringing, and the ID says it's my bodyguard. I should probably take this call...

The following takes place between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm.

Events occur in real time.

Author's Note: I'm going to be taking a slight break from writing, but only because I have to. My school work is demanding so much attention this semester, and I can only write this when I can. Don't get me wrong, I have to write this story. I love it too much to abandon it. So while I won't be posting the first chapter for at least another month or so, don't worry. I will be back, and I promise, it will be worth the wait.


	2. 7:00 pm 8:00 pm

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

Author's Note: Alex Winterfall is an original character I created long ago, and this story would be his origin story. So, here we go again…

The following takes place between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm.

Events occur in real time.

7:00:00 – Greater Peoria Regional Airport. Max stood at the observational deck and stared out at the tarmac where the planes were arriving and departing.

He had never been to this part of the Midwest. He had been all over the world, but never to the Midwest United States. It may have been the smell, the jet lag, the overall lack of sleep, or his ongoing nicotine withdrawal, but whatever it was, he hated this place.

Max was an assassin for hire. But he signed an exclusive deal six years ago with an independent contractor. He had been sent on jobs all over the world, and he didn't know who put the hit out, and he didn't care. His job was to kill for a set price, and he asked no questions.

There was one thing that most people noticed about Max, and that was the fact that he was strikingly attractive. Most people that looked at him would figure him for a model or an actor. Others might think of other professions based on the fact that he almost always wore some kind of suit, but anybody that guessed he was a contract killer was only joking. The funny part to Max was the fact that he really was, and they didn't know. Irony, he loved it.

At 27, he had already trained another hit man who became fairly successful in the business. He had taught the other man to wear any suit for at least a week before using it during a job. And he didn't just mean every once in a while, he meant it literally for a whole week. If you had a suit to use on the job, you slept in it, you exercised in it, and you went out in it. You did everything in it besides bathe for a whole week. The purpose was to let you get used to the feel of the suit, so when the time came for you to spring in action, it wouldn't restrain you in any way because you knew what type of movements you could make without even thinking about it.

Max preferred his suits well worn, and his Brioni suit was the very definition of that phrase. It was a black two-button jacket and black slacks. Today he wore it with a white button up shirt underneath, and no tie. With an outfit like this, he blended in with the rest of the tired, jet lagged crowd coming into town on business.

He brought the cigarette up to his mouth and took a long drag. Inhaling the nicotine felt blissful, almost psychedelic. He didn't want to think about the job. Right now, all he wanted was to be left alone for the next few moments.

He was here in town working on something that was more different than anything he had ever worked on. Most hit men don't like working together, and that's mainly because they don't listen to anybody but themselves.

A piece of Max's long blonde hair came down over his face, and he quickly tucked it behind his left ear, taking another drag from the cigarette.

The job was a list. He had been assigned to it, along with a group of other assassins. Their job was to kill the names on the list by sunrise. The list composed of five names, with the order to kill anybody that either presented a clear obstacle, or could be used to get to the target. Those names were: Hwoarang Doo San, Jin Kazama, Albert Wallace, Gavin Le Carre, and Steve Fox.

Max didn't know these people, and he didn't care who they were. To him, they were just another sorry son of a bitch who got on the wrong side of his gun.

He had already been told by his boss that Le Carre would be coming into town. That helped. That meant the only other person who wasn't in town was Steve Fox, and he wasn't too far out of the way. He was in a small town over in Iowa. If nobody had gotten to him by mid morning, it wouldn't take too long for him to go over there and take care of Fox. The dossiers gave him everything that he would need to know about each mark. Max had taken the time on the flight to plot out his pattern of hits during the night. This would be an open and shut case. He just hoped that the other hit men didn't get in his way.

His phone vibrated. He slipped it out of his pocket and flipped it open, the metal earpiece cold as it touched his skin.

"Is 'Blackbird' set?" A woman asked in German.

"Yes. 'Blackbird' is running," Max answered.

He snapped the phone shut. With that, the game was on. He flicked the butt of his cigarette on the floor, not bothering to put it out. He put the phone back in his pocket and picked up the small briefcase next to him, and walked off. He had work to do.

7:04:47 – Albert Wallace was on the seventh floor of an office building in downtown Peoria. The main hall on the floor was L-shaped, which was meant to give way to the view over the railing down to the lobby. The front of the building was made entirely of glass, which always had a nice view during the day. At night, there wasn't much to see. Plus, the building was technically closed, and he was inside of it, illegally.

He had been on the trail of William Amstel for months now. He escaped a prison sentence shortly after the incident in Japan, but he still didn't have a job.

Wallace had gotten this far by talking to old contacts of his and by paying people for information. He had gone from one country to the next, following a information trail that finally led him to this building. It was odd, because this building was mainly for doctors offices. There was nothing suspicious about it.

He had scoped out the building for days, watching it at night from the parking lot of an outpatient center across the street. There was no security here at night, minus the one guard at the front and back door.

Tonight, something was up. There were guards inside this time, but still not that many. He counted heads before he came in, and he counted six guards total.

He didn't know what office he was looking for, but he had a clue that it wouldn't be clearly marked and that it would be taking up a good amount of office space.

Wallace had his gun out, which was fitted with a silencer. So far, he hadn't had to use it. He hadn't even had to knock anyone out.

The office at the end of the hall was marked 710, and it wasn't marked with a doctor's tag. It simply said "Storage".

He continued to tip toe over to the door. A noise ruffled the carpet behind him. Wallace quickly hugged the wall, gun pointed in the direction of the noise.

A door opened, and a guard came out, moving in the other direction. Wallace still waited until the guard was out of sight, thankful that the man never turned around.

Wallace pulled out a lock pick out of his pocket. He kept low until he reached the door, and quietly picked the lock, hoping that the guard didn't return. He was being very cautious, hoping that once the lock was opened, it wouldn't make a loud noise. Anything sharp and significant would be heard in a place like this.

The door opened peacefully, and Wallace quickly entered and shut the door. This definitely wasn't a storage closet. He wasn't sure which agency it was, but this was obviously a secret field office. There were a few cubicles, nicer than your average one made of plastic that made it feel like a closet space. But there was also another office, separated by a glass partition with blinds. This had to be the director's space.

He quickly entered the director's office and turned on the computer. There wasn't much to look at on the desktop. Different folders marking different projects, many of which Wallace figured were black-labeled operations. There was only one folder he saw that was recognizable: Project Blackbird.

He opened it and inside was the dossier of many different men, the first being Maxwell Tiis (pronounced Teah-us), a hit man who had lived in England his whole life until he was sixteen. He had committed his first murder then, and his Norwegian parents shipped him out of the country. He had never been caught, but he eventually became a very good killer.

This list of others in his file is what disturbed Wallace. Hwoarang, and pretty much everyone else, including him, were in the file. It was obvious that it was a hit list. But there was something else. It mentioned other projects that were connected to this one.

He opened the other files, and he immediately went cold. The other files included had the same list, different assassins. There was a project for a female assassin, and a pair of large African brothers. These were all that were there for the time being, but this was plenty. He took a disk out of his jacket and downloaded the files.

Wallace heard voices coming from the door. The files were still being downloaded. He looked back at the door. It was opening.

The guard immediately saw him, and raised his flashlight. The file finished downloading.

"Freeze!" the guard yelled out.

Wallace pulled out his gun and fired three shots through the glass at the guard. The guard, immediately dispatched, gave Wallace a small amount of time to get out. He quickly grabbed the disk and ran out of the office.

A guard was running towards him, and Wallace shot him in the shoulder. The guard dropped to ground, screaming. Wallace continued to run to the stairwell, and kicked the door open. He rushed down the stairwell and was met with a hail of bullets that nearly hit him. He rushed out, and shot a guard that was busy reloading his service pistol. He raced down the stairs and into the lobby.

Surprisingly, there was nobody else in the lobby, and he rushed outside the emergency exit. Behind him, two guards were giving chase. Wallace pulled out his car keys and hit a button, the car a hundred yards away roaring to life. He came up to the car door, turned around and fired at the guards. They took cover, and Wallace got in the car. The guards returned fire, shattering the back windows of Wallace's car as he peeled off.

7:08:22 – The house was like it normally was, but something was still eerily wrong about it. Hwoarang had lived here for the past six months, and he never had this feeling about this place. It could have been because he wasn't always alone, but right now he was.

He felt that this was some sort of test that Alex had concocted. Alex Winterfall was his bodyguard. That was something that the CIA required for him. Jin had one too, and they both agreed that it was somewhat pointless. But now, Hwoarang had to admit that it was nice to have somebody around that you really got along with. Yeah, Alex was there to protect him, but if he wasn't they would still have the same relationship. It was very close, even after six months.

He cursed himself for not having a gun on him. But thankfully, Alex was a good planner. The living room was the first room you were in if you came through the front door. On the same side of the room as the door, there was the huge entertainment center. Behind it, was a 12-guage, Benelli Nova Pump Tactical. It was a monster of a pump-action shotgun that Alex picked out specifically. It had a flashlight attached to the barrel, and thankfully, it was pre-loaded.

He pumped it, and kept it in front of him, sweeping across the room. The kitchen was straight ahead, the kitchen light on. To his right were three rooms: the master bedroom, the bathroom, and a second bedroom, all connected by a small hallway. Hwoarang cleared the kitchen and moved over to the bedrooms.

But before he hit the bedrooms, there was a small closet in front of him. He angled himself, so he could see into the bedrooms. There was no need in being surprised by somebody. It was hard to see anyone because the lights were off in both rooms. He then opened the closet. There wasn't anything suspicious. He closed the door.

And that's when he got it. After he closed the door, a shooter aimed his gun, coming from the master bedroom to his right. Hwoarang never would have had a chance to turn to face the shooter.

"Put the shotgun on the floor, slowly," the shooter said.

"You don't normally go for the surprise appearance," Hwoarang said.

Alex Winterfall came out of the darkened bedroom. He continued to hold the gun on Hwoarang.

"I know. But you have to be prepared for everything. You obviously weren't." he said.

"If you're going to shoot that thing, you might want to take the safety off first." Hwoarang mentioned.

"That'll never fool me," Alex said.

Hwoarang looked away from Alex.

"Well, I was going to try to get ready for that class over at the college…" Hwoarang started.

He then flung his arm out at the gun, pushing it out of the way, and then pushed forward to tackle Alex onto the floor. He got on top of his chest and punched him hard in the face. It allowed Hwoarang enough time to race back for the shotgun. Alex tried to get up, but Hwoarang already had the Benelli trained on him.

"Jesus! The exercise was already over, why do you always do that?" Alex protested as he got up off the bedroom floor.

Hwoarang lowered the shotgun and smiled. A small, but quiet chuckle escaped his mouth.

"Call it payback," he said.

The phone rang. Alex quickly pushed Hwoarang aside and answered it in the kitchen.

Hwoarang sat the shotgun against the closet door and walked into the other bedroom. It was a decent size, but it still felt small sometimes.

He was tired. Hwoarang never enjoyed school, but Alex had talked him into it. Besides, there wasn't much else to do during the day.

He quietly cursed to himself as he sat down on the bed, rubbed his eyes and swept his hand through his now long, red hair. He felt like he was retired. There was nothing more annoying to find out that you're twenty-two and that you actually have to find things to do in order to keep yourself busy.

The first few weeks he had gone shopping, splurging on himself after Jin gave him the wad of cash that the majority of was sitting in a bank on the north end of town. He played video games nonstop, but that quickly got old. Gambling wasn't allowed, the CIA thought it was too public, and marked it as unsafe.

But somehow, going to school was safe. Illinois Central College was a small, growing community college that was pretty popular in this area. The agency told Hwoarang that they'd pick up the tab. After a little coercing from Alex, he went along with it.

He didn't know what he wanted to take; finally, he decided to just take classes towards a general education degree. His classes weren't that hard. Hwoarang may have been a misfit in his previous life, but he wasn't stupid. He always did score high on tests as a kid, the only thing that changed from then to now was that he just didn't give a shit.

"Yo!" Alex called.

"What?" Hwoarang asked, sounding annoyed.

"We're on," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"That was the agency. They want us to come in, now."

"Whoopidy-fucking-do," Hwoarang said, getting up off the bed.

7:14:37 – Jin Kazama's limo strolled down the northern end of Grand View drive, which was on the north side of Peoria, in a small township called Peoria Heights.

The past year had been one of extreme surprise. First, there was the day in Tokyo where he was involved in a huge plot involving Combots. That led to the deaths of Lee and Heihachi, and the disappearance of Kazuya. The authorities labeled him as dead, but Jin knew better than to believe that his father was dead.

It was only hours after it had all ended at the Zaibatzu building that he found out about the fortune he had inherited. The Zaibatzu's lawyers called him at the ATU and told him that according to Heihachi's will, Jin, was the only other blood relative alive to run the company.

The will stated that only after the death of all relatives could the company be sold to the general market. But Jin owned the company, and he could do anything he wanted to. This is why he was so dumbfounded. He never had the opportunity to do anything he wanted. There was always something that stood in his way, and now, nothing.

Jin never was a business man, so he sold the company the same day he got it. The amount of cash that he got was astronomical. So much so that he decided to give it some of the people who helped him through that dreadful day.

The CIA offered him asylum, saying that William Amstel would probably want him dead. Jin agreed, and so did Hwoarang, who was offered the same deal. Since the two of them were a priority, they placed them both in the same city.

The only thing that Jin never enjoyed was having a bodyguard. He felt that it was pointless, other than to have somebody for company. Jin never was the type who got lonely, unlike Hwoarang, who seemed like he always needed someone to be there.

The driver of the limo was his bodyguard, Tim. The two never really had a mutual friendship. Jin knew that he was there to protect him, and Tim had no interest in taking the relationship further.

Today, Jin had met with a financial advisor. The thing about money is that it needs to be maintained, and regardless of where you are, if you have money, somebody will know. Here, people knew.

With the money, he felt that the least he could do is help back companies that needed the financial support. Today, he made the decision to back a technology company that was starting to grow in the Peoria area. In fact, it had its own building in the downtown riverfront district.

But now, he was just getting home from the long day of meeting with the people from the company. There were the various thanks, and the inevitable gifts. Jin felt dirty, having to put on some fake celebrity smile for people. Was he happy? Yeah. Did he feel like smiling for something as corny as a celebration because they're not going bankrupt? Hell no. Jin never was the type who wanted to be the center of attention.

The limo stopped and Jin realized he was home. He got out, and Tim shut the limo off. The air outside was chilly, probably around the mid 40's. Jin wasn't used to this type of weather. Japan had it cold spells, but it was only a little warmer than this.

Jin remembered Hwoarang teasing him earlier in the week, about how cold it was going to get in the middle of winter. Jin wasn't looking forward to it. If anything, he was experiencing the Winter Blues in early November. Bah Humbug indeed.

He shut the door and walked up to the front door. Tim was walking behind him when his phone rang. Jin ignored it and continued on.

Tim had called out to him, telling him to not go in first, but Jin had tuned it out.

Inside the house, Jin could hear the phone ringing. He quietly cursed to himself as he ran to the door and fiddle with the keys, frantically trying to get the door open before the caller hung up.

Tim saw him run in.

"Shit, I'm going to have to call you back," he said.

Tim put his cell phone back in his pocket, and began to go in the house. Two silenced shots fired out, and hit him in the back.

Inside, Jin raced to the phone. It was in the kitchen. Jin finally reached the phone, turning on the lights to the room at the same time.

"Hello?" Jin asked.

"Mr. Kazama?" a distorted voice asked.

"Yes, who is this?"

"That's not important right now. What is though, is that I have her."

"Is this some sort of prank?"

"No. Quite the opposite. Ling is ours, and if you want to see her alive, you will do what we ask." The voice said.

"I want proof of life," Jin said.

"You've seen too many movies, Jin. You either do what we ask, or she's dead. If want to know how serious we are, look at you front door."

Jin just now realized how quite it was. It would have been unlike Tim to not stay by his side. He tip-toed to the hall, which had a straight shot to the front door. Tim was on the floor, face down.

"You killed my bodyguard, congratulations. But I need proof that you have Ling." Jin said.

"You're a persistent little shit, aren't you?" the voice said.

There was silence on the line for a moment. Jin was afraid that he hung up.

"Ok. But this is all you'll get. Any more bullshit and she'll be dead. Go to the intersection of Route 8 and Koerner Road. Look for the stop sign."

"What am I looking for?" Jin asked.

"You'll know it when you see it." The voice said, hanging up.

Jin hung up the phone and placed his back against the wall. He looked in front of him, his mouth hanging open. He didn't even realize it. He was in shock.

7:23:18 - Alex was driving tonight, and Hwoarang didn't mind. Besides, Alex demanded that he did due to the location of the meeting. Hwoarang didn't know what was so special about it; it was just the CIA headquarters.

The Expedition Alex was driving came to a stop light. They were face university St, which was probably the main street of the city. The funny thing is that the cross street they were stopped on was Main St.

The city had many different streets to help navigate any new person around. University was at the center of five main streets that ran parallel to each other and they ran in this order, left to right: Sterling, University, Sheridan, Knoxville, and Prospect. They were all fairly long, and if you were lost, it'd be easy to find your way if you knew of these five streets.

The corner of Main and University was a popular one among college students. Bradley University wasn't far off from that corner, and the whole campus pretty much ran alongside the intersection.

Alex glanced over at the coffee shop that sat caddy corner to where the car was. The One World Coffee and Cargo Café sat on the corner, and held a new world art look to it. Just by the style of it, one could guess that college kids, hippies, and anyone who drank nothing but chai products would be here. But, surprisingly, a lot of people were here, and the crowd was made up of a lot of different people. The food was pretty good too.

The light gave Alex the arrow, and he turned left. He quickly turned again into the One World parking lot. Hwoarang could tell that this wasn't the headquarters.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hwoarang asked.

"This is our stop." Alex said.

"One World? Funny. But really, where are we supposed to go?"

"Here. There's an apartment on the second floor." Alex said.

Hwoarang got out of the car, glancing out at the traffic until Alex came over to him. Alex led the way, passing by the people on the sidewalk.

They entered the café, passing through the walk-in section where you asked for a table, and into the kitchen. Hwoarang had no clue what the hell they were doing here. Alex hadn't said anything about what the agency wanted, but if they were making him walk through a café's kitchen, it had to be important.

At the back of the kitchen was a door. Alex opened it and let Hwoarang go in first. Alex followed and shut the door, quickly killing the noise from the café. The stairwell was dimly lit by three sulfur colored lights hidden in the ceiling. Hwoarang figured it had been years since this stairwell had been painted; it was an orange color that had to have come from the 1970's.

Alex walked up the stairs, Hwoarang following. They walked into the apartment, the door open. Three men were inside, and they were the classic definition of a "spook". They all wore the same colored suits – black, but different ties. Two of them were standing, leaning up against the wall. The other one was smoking a cigarette and sitting on a chair backwards.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." the man on the chair said.

"Michael Stanson. You've changed. They told me I'd be meeting an old friend, but I never expected you." Alex said.

Hwoarang felt like he was a guy who had just crashed a private party. Everyone was having fun but him, and the crowd stares back at you with cold, steely eyes as if you have just pissed them off.

"Is this him?" Stanson asked.

"You looking for me?" Hwoarang asked.

"As a matter of fact, I am. I'm SAC Michael Stanson, I run the Peoria field office of the agency. You've become a popular person again." Stanson said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hwoarang asked.

"It means you have a price on your head. That's why we've brought you here."

"Somebody's trying to kill me. Why do I have the feeling that I've heard that one before?"

"This is serious. You're not the only one that these people are after, and they've got a body count."

"Who?" Alex asked.

"Zoe Le Carre." Stanson said.

"Is that Gavin's daughter?" Hwoarang asked.

"Yep. They hit his home earlier this morning. She took a bullet that was meant for him." Stanson said.

"Where's Gavin?" Hwoarang asked.

"On a plane headed here. His flight should be landing within the next half hour, which is why we've brought you guys here. You need to be briefed."

"How long has this been going on?" Alex asked.

Stanson stood up and nodded to one of the other men. The man hit the light switch next to him, and the lights turned off, and a projector hidden somewhere in the wall turned on.

Hwoarang looked at the screen, which showed a man in his mid 40's. The man was well built and very handsome. He had slick black hair, and looked European, based on hair style and the suit.

"This is William Amstel. He is ex-CIA, Special Forces. In all honesty, he's probably killed more people than he's actually met. He performed wet work for the agency six years ago before he went missing. Two years ago, we picked up reconnaissance photos of him in Belgrade, trading weapons with known terrorists. We then labeled him rogue, and that was when we approached Lee Chaolan. We had followed Amstel to Japan, and since Chaolan was the CFO of the Mishima Zaibatzu, we offered him immunity." Stanson said.

"For what?" Hwoarang asked.

"We had intercepted a few phone calls that proved that the Zaibatzu dealt weapons to other organizations via the black market. We gave him a deal – work with Amstel, deliver him to us, and he'll never be charged when we take down the Zaibatzu. We never told any other agencies. This was strictly off the books until the sting was set up." Stanson said.

"Makes sense. That was why he never said anything." Alex said.

Hwoarang shook his head. He didn't want to remember that day, but he did.

"Everything was going as planned until the ATU got involved. But if it hadn't been for them, we never would have seen Lee's plan to overtake the Zaibatzu at the same time. We wanted Heihachi, and Lee knew that. With Heihachi out of the way, he may have had a chance of running the company, and escaping us from taking the company down." Stanson said.

"Let's get to the point. What does Amstel want with me?" Hwoarang asked.

"He wants you dead. Plus everybody else that was involved with the Tokyo incident." Stanson said.

"Who's the intel from?" Alex asked.

"Classified. I don't even know who it's from. But it is valid."

"So what do you want us to do?" Hwoarang asked.

The man turned the lights back on. Stanson took another drag from his cigarette before lightly smashing the butt on the back of the chair.

"We want to keep you at the safehouse, but since we know that the two of you are perfectly capable field agents, we would like you to go pick Le Carre up from the airport, then go back home. That house is stocked well enough that you could protect yourselves for a good while." Stanson said.

"Fine. I have your number right?" Alex said.

"Yeah. Just call the switchboard. My extension is 5272. That'll get my cell." Stanson said.

"Ok. Thanks." Alex said.

Alex and Hwoarang turned around, heading for the stairwell.

"Hey, Hwoarang." Stanson called out.

Hwoarang stopped and looked back at Stanson.

"Be careful out there." He said.

Hwoarang just walked off.

7:35:19 – Gavin Le Carre was a lot of things right now. He was distraught, he was mad, he was slightly drunk, and he was quietly crying. The last ten hours, he had time to grieve.

It was only that morning that his daughter, Zoe, was killed. She had been going to Oxford, and was probably was one of the most strikingly beautiful women alive. She had been majoring in chemistry, and she was planning on working in the medical research field.

He never had time to go back for her. He wished he could, but everything had happened so fast. She got in the way and then she fell, and he had to escape before they got him too.

They had just gotten up. She was in town for the weekend, and he was on a year's leave after the Tokyo incident. He remembered everything. The smell of the blueberries on the table, the heat coming from the stove as Zoe made her infamous blueberry/banana pancakes. He remembered the taste of the chocolate milk on his tongue, and that's when it happened.

He remembered a quiet rolling sound, and then the explosion hit. The ringing in his ears was louder than he ever remembered. They were both blown to the floor due to the explosion of the concussion grenade. They both had gotten up and run to the front of the house. Zoe opened the door, only to be met with three bullets to the chest.

The rest was history. Gavin had run upstairs and grabbed his special briefcase, just in case something like this ever happened. It had passports, a gun that was invisible to metal detectors, a satellite phone, a small laptop computer, and a special credit card issued to him from MI6, which was still active. It was a security measure that they gave every agent, regardless of if they still work there or not.

He escaped through a secret chute installed in his bedroom, which slid out into the driveway. Gavin hopped into his car and raced to London, where he met with some people at MI6, then raced to the airport.

He had received an earpiece at MI6. He went there because he knew he needed help getting out of the country. They would supply agents to watch him at the airport and do extra security checks on the plane, and watch everyone who would get on. If anyone suspicious got on, they would report it to him via the earpiece.

They did report one person. He was of an average build, dark hair, and glasses. That described nearly everyone on the plane. But he had a plan. He would just wait till they reached land until he moved, just in case something happened. He didn't want to chance taking the plane down somehow over water; he'd never survive.

The man that seemed the most suspicious was two rows ahead of him and to the left, sitting next to the window.

The pilot came on ten minutes ago, saying that they were twenty minutes off from landing in Peoria. Gavin got up out of his seat, taking his briefcase with him. His objective here was to distinguish any suspicious person from the group.

He made it to the bathroom without resistance. Gavin pulled out the phone and dialed a number. After a few beeps, somebody answered.

"Clearance code." The man said.

"43-Alpha-Tango-6590-Delta." Gavin said.

"Approved. Gavin?" the man said.

"Yeah. You were right, I've got a shadow. I'm going to try to ditch him before we land." Gavin said.

"How do you plan on doing that?" the man said.

Gavin smiled.

"I've got a few ideas." He said.

7:40:33 – Jin Kazama was racing down Route 8, which at this time of the night was very dark. The road led to a lot of outlining communities. But the small, T-intersection at Koerner Road had no lights whatsoever.

He was afraid of who they met by "her". Jin was afraid to that they had Ling. She was in town today, and he had lunch with her.

Something had happened to her. She still worked with the CIA, but she was inactive. She said she was going to school in D.C. and that she was happy there.

But there was still one thing that she said that bothered him. She didn't want him to tell Hwoarang she had been here. She hadn't talked to him since the day in Tokyo.

But who would want him? As far as Jin knew, he was completely safe. He was never told about Amstel, and he hadn't talked to Hwoarang at all.

The intersection was coming up, and he didn't know what to expect. If he was attacked, he could fight, but that wouldn't get him anywhere. He had nothing to bargain with.

The engine of the Audi TT sped along at 70 mph, and Jin saw the intersection. There was nobody else on the road, which worried him. He slammed on the breaks.

Jin opened the door, the sound of crickets and the smell of burnt rubber filled the air. He turned on the brights, and got out.

"Oh, no." he said.

On the stop sign was a blood soaked shirt. It hit him hard, and he knew they had Ling. The shirt was one he gave her a month ago as a gift.

His phone rang.

"What?" Jin said.

"I can see you." The voice said.

Jin turned around, searching every direction to see if he could see somebody.

"Don't bother. I'm looking at you through a scope, and it's a long way on foot in any direction. You have your proof of life. Now, are you ready for my demands?" the voice asked.

"What the fuck do you want?" Jin spat out.

"Boarders book store. Grand Prairie mall. Take Koerner road up to route 150, turn right. You'll run right into it. Go to the men's bathroom, last stall. There'll be a sign on it. Go in, and wait for further instructions." The voice said, hanging up.

Jin put the phone back in his jacket. This was hopeless. He went back to the car, and drove off. He took the road the voice said to take, and he just prayed that Ling was ok.

7:44:09 – Hwoarang and Alex entered the airport. They couldn't believe how quiet it was. It wasn't like it was two in the morning, it wasn't even nine yet, and still the place looked like it was closed.

The lights were all on, the air conditioning was running. Alex figured that it's probably just a dead period for the night. But he figured that there would at least be people around, waiting for a flight or something.

They moved onto the security terminals, and thankfully, somebody was there. Alex walked up to one of the screeners. He noticed that the middle aged woman looked like she'd seen the work shift from hell.

"Hey. Has it been busy tonight?" Alex asked.

The screener looked at Alex, and then glanced over at Hwoarang. She didn't know what to think. There was something suspicious when that question was asked by a guy in a suit who's being followed by another guy with orange hair wearing street clothes.

"Who's asking?" she asked.

Alex pulled out his badge.

"I'm Agent Winterfall, CIA. This is my partner, Bob. We're waiting on a flight that's coming in from London." Alex said.

"Landed a few minutes ago." She said.

"Where is everybody?" Alex asked.

"Still on board. Supposedly there's something wrong with the landing gear. Security wants to check it out before letting everyone off."

"Ok. Thanks." Alex said.

They both walked off and Hwoarang rushed up to his side.

"Bob?" Hwoarang said.

"Well, I wasn't about to call you by your real name. She'd suspect me of pulling a prank." Alex said.

"You still couldn't think of a better name than Bob? I mean, come on! Why not Mike, or Nick, or Jeff? Why not something like Steve? Well, maybe not Steve." Hwoarang said.

"You're rambling again."

"Shut up." Hwoarang said.

Hwoarang's phone rang. He answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Hwoarang?"

"Gavin? You still on the plane?" Hwoarang asked.

"No. I'm on the tarmac. I got out through the landing gear as the plane landed." Le Carre said.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

"Somebody followed me from England. Listen, I'm going to meet you at your safehouse. I've got the address. I'll meet you there in a while." Le Carre said, hanging up.

"Huh." Hwoarang said.

"What was that?" Alex said.

"That was Gavin. He told me to go back to the safehouse and that he would meet us there." Hwoarang said.

"Did he say where he was?" Alex asked.

"On the tarmac, but he also said somebody had followed him on the flight." Hwoarang said.

"Look, he's an ex-MI6 agent. He can take care of himself. We should get back there in case he beats us there." Alex said.

They both left the airport terminal, and got back in the car. Alex made sure that he had a led foot getting back home.

7:49:56 – Jin Kazama pulled into a parking space at the Grand Prairie mall. It was an outdoor mall that had stores to suit the people with expensive tastes. It had everything from an expensive pottery store to a wine and cigar shop to an Old Navy.

Jin got out of the car and locked the door. He quickly walked with the crowds, making his way to the Boarders book store. It was a decent size, but only one floor. The last one he had been to was in Chicago and that had somewhere around four floors. Here, there was simply more floor space.

He walked past the café and to the information desk. Above, a sign pointed out that the bathrooms were to his right.

Jin saw it. There was a metal detector that led into a hallway. He followed it into the men's bathroom. Sure enough, the last stall had a sign that said "Out of order". He slowly walked over to the stall.

Another person walked into the bathroom, taking his place at the urinal.

Jin continued to push open the stall door. Sitting on the toilet was a small metal briefcase. He heard the man washing his hands, then the door to the bathroom shutting against the frame of the doorway.

His phone rang.

"Yeah?" Jin asked.

"I trust you see the case." The voice said.

"Yeah, it's here."

"Open it."

Jin opened the briefcase. Inside was a Glock, nine millimeter. Next to it were three small devices. Jin froze in horror when he saw the "Semtex" stamp on the plastic substance.

"What the hell do you want with me?" Jin asked.

"Take this case to One Technology Plaza, downtown. You know where it is." The voice said.

"These will never get through the metal detector." Jin said.

The voice chuckled, then hung up.

"Shit." Jin whispered to himself.

He had to try at least. He didn't know what he would do if it triggered the alarm. He closed up the case and walked out of the bathroom.

Fear froze him to the floor. Jin Kazama had a gun and a bomb in the briefcase. If he was caught with it, he'd be arrested, probably for terrorism, and Ling would die.

But he had an excuse. The dead agent, the phone calls, Ling's disappearance. He had enough to clear his name. There wasn't anything to worry about.

Jin walked through the metal detector. Nothing happened. He couldn't help but take a sigh of relief at his dumb luck. But then he realized how funny the caller thought it was.

Jin took the briefcase and walked out to his car. He had a feeling what the caller wanted, and it wasn't good.

7:57:48 – Hwoarang and Alex were racing back to the house. The airport wasn't very far away from their place. Probably not more than five minutes.

Alex turned onto their street.

"So how close are you and Gavin?" Alex asked.

"We worked together during that thing in Tokyo earlier this year." Hwoarang said.

"Have you talked to him since then?" Alex asked.

"No. Funny how trouble is bringing us together again." He said.

Hwoarang could see the front porch of the house from where they were on the street. Somebody was at the door.

"Who is that?" Hwoarang asked.

Alex took a look as he slowed down the SUV.

"Don't know. Get the gun out from under the seat…" Alex said.

He was cut off from the sound of Hwoarang cocking the Walther P99. The Korean was ready for anything. Alex stopped the vehicle at the curb. They both got out, guns drawn.

"You on the porch, hands up!" Alex called out.

The man turned around and Hwoarang recognized him immediately.

"Wallace?" he said.

"Hwoarang! Thank God you're here. I have something you need to know." Wallace called out.

Something was up. He had never seen Wallace so panicked. He placed his gun in his waistband.

"What the hell is going on?" Alex asked.

"It's ok, I know him." Hwoarang said.

Wallace ran down the front stairs and met them on the driveway. He immediately pulled out a disk and handed it to Hwoarang.

"Listen to me. There's somebody after me, so I don't have much time. On this disk is a list of hit men who have been hired to kill a list of people involved with what went on in Japan. I heard Le Carre is coming in. Take it to him, he'll figure it out."

"Who's after you?" Alex asked.

A shot rang out, and Wallace's face exploded into a red mass, the body falling to the pavement.

"Sniper! Move!" Alex yelled.

Alex and Hwoarang dashed to the back of the house, just as another shot ricocheted under Hwoarang's feet, barely missing him.

7:59:57…

7:59:58…

7:59:59…

8:00:00…


	3. 8:00 pm 9:00 pm

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story. The geographical locations in this story actually exist. If you're curious, look at an online map of Peoria, Illinois.

The following takes place between 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm.

Events occur in real time.

8:00:00 – Michael Stanson never liked this part of the city. It was too dark, and if you were white, you almost found yourself looking over your shoulder every five minutes, especially if you weren't from around this part of Peoria.

The south side of Peoria was the ghetto. In the 1950's, this was the prosperous section. Middle class families could sit here and raise the perfect family. Now, that couldn't be farther from the truth. This was the place where most of the shootings took place. Drug deals, single mothers under the age of sixteen, you name it, this place has it.

Stanson was completely out of place here. He currently drove a Honda Accord, and at least this somewhat fit in. He was sitting there, watching a house on Sumner St, not far from a church whose tall steeple stood high behind the neighborhood, which wasn't more than two blocks away.

He wasn't sure where Le Carre wanted to meet him, but he could see the mark that he left Stanson as a signal scrapped onto the stone steps of the house.

A black man all bundled up from the cold walked by and glanced at Stanson. Stanson stared back, and as the man continued on, their reflective gazes parted. He'd had enough.

Stanson got out of the car, locking the door on the way. He crossed the street and looked through the screen porch door. The house was a two-story home, and it was a nice one, but the neighborhood didn't help.

The porch continued on into the living room, which connected to the dining room, and to the kitchen. From the front door, you can see straight to the back door.

Stanson entered into the living room. The light was on, but nothing in the dining room. Through the darkness, he could see that the kitchen light over the sink was on, and it shined into the doorway of the kitchen.

He continued onto the kitchen, gun drawn. He wasn't sure if Le Carre was here, or if he had left all of this as a distraction.

The kitchen had two different directions. Straight ahead was the back door and probable basement. To his right was the bathroom and staircase up to the second floor. He turned to the stairs.

"I'm up here," Le Carre called down the stairs.

Stanson ran up the stairs two at a time and moved into the master bedroom. Le Carre was busy staring at a set of three TV monitors.

"You're late," Le Carre said.

"I got here as soon as you paged me. It's not exactly easy leaving the office without anyone knowing."

"I was checking out the security features of the house. The dining room had a camera running x-ray, and the kitchen had night vision and thermal filters," Le Carre said.

"Not bad for a house in the slums," Stanson said.

Le Carre was sitting on the bed. He stood up to face Stanson.

"Have you found anything?" Le Carre asked.

"As of a week ago, Amstel doesn't even exist. He's gone. That's what worries me."

"Where was he?"

"Thailand. He's been hiding up in the mountains there, and we finally raided the place five days ago, and there was nothing there." Stanson said.

"Go figure. He was trained to evade." Le Carre responded.

"We did pick up something interesting at the airport though. I thought you'd probably want to see these."

Stanson took a group of small photos out from his jacket and threw them on the bed. The photos showed two tall black men, who happened to be identical twins. Le Carre picked them up and stared at them with intensity. The anger boiled in his eyes.

"Oringo and Zesiro Mabinko. They came in under different names, but my man there thought they looked suspicious. It's not everyday you see seven foot tall, African twins with very heavy accents wearing all black." Stanson said.

"When did they come in?" Le Carre said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.

"They went through customs around six."

"They come in on a private jet?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?" Stanson asked.

"A fucking guess. Figures these bastards would arrive earlier than me." Le Carre said, taking a long, shaky-handed drag from the cigarette.

"Are you ok?"

"Do I look ok? These fuckers killed my daughter. I'm not leaving until they're dead and buried." Le Carre said.

"Well, then we should get going. The faster we get to Hwoarang and Jin, the faster you can get your revenge." Stanson said.

"What makes you say that?" Le Carre asked.

"Once they're in our care," Stanson said, pointing at the pictures on the bed, "they'll come to us."

Le Carre grinned, taking another drag.

8:06:14 – Another shot rang out from a rooftop as Hwoarang ducked behind a nearby car. The bullet ricocheted off the top of the car, bouncing off into the darkness.

Across the street, Alex was behind his own car. Hwoarang wasn't sure who was after them, or where the sniper was.

After Wallace got shot, Hwoarang followed Alex into the alley behind the house and they moved down two more blocks since then. He took a second to catch his breath and to collect his bearings. They were now moving east.

"Where the hell are we going?" Hwoarang called out to Alex.

Alex was breathing hard as well. He wasn't as athletic as Hwoarang.

The orange colored lights illuminated the car he was behind, and he looked through the back window quickly. Another shot rang out, this time hitting Alex's car.

"I'm trying to circle back. Can you see anything?" Alex asked.

Hwoarang stuck his head under the car, looking for anything odd. With all the gunfire, nobody would be stupid enough to take a walk, especially since this is a neighborhood that has rarely ever had an issue with guns going off after dark. He noticed a shadow running across the street with a large rifle in his arms.

"He's crossing the street." Hwoarang said.

Alex made a bold, yet stupid move. He ran across the street, revealing himself. The sniper shot again, missing Alex. He then hid with Hwoarang behind one car.

They were right in front of a driveway that was lined up to the street with cars. Hwoarang knew what Alex was thinking, and it wasn't a bad idea. Alex acted on it first, and ran up the driveway, using the line of cars as cover. Hwoarang quickly followed.

8:07:22 – Max held the rifle in his hands. He couldn't believe how many times he had missed already.

He saw a pair of shadows running up the driveway, and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked, the magazine spent.

"Fuck!" he cursed.

Max knew he would have to do this the hard way. He dropped the rifle on the ground, leaving it in the middle of the street. He then pulled out a gold Heckler and Koch HK7. It was his signature pistol, and he was damn good with it. With the gun loaded, he walked down the street, and ran after his prey.

8:08:03 – Hwoarang had no clue who lived at this house. Alex didn't care who was there, he was already picking the lock to the back door.

Hwoarang was watching the driveway. There was a sharp turn right, and there was the back door. He quickly looked out, and saw Max starting up the drive. Hwoarang snapped his fingers twice, showing a bit of excitement.

"Got it!" Alex whispered, making his way inside.

Hwoarang quickly ran in, and Alex shut the door behind him. The landing at the back door had two different sets of stairs. One that led down into a basement and another short set that led into the kitchen. Hwoarang continued into the kitchen. He had to get out of here. The ceiling light gave him away completely. Hwoarang stared back at Alex, who was following him.

A shotgun racked in the next room. Hwoarang quickly cocked his head towards the sound. In the doorway that led to the next room was the home owner.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in my house?" he asked.

Hwoarang was frozen. It didn't look good breaking into a house with a gun in your hand.

"Sir, as bad as this looks, we're not here to hurt you…" Hwoarang began.

"Bullshit. Even if you weren't lying through your fucking teeth, you'd still want to get what's yours, right?"

"Sir, I'm not here to burglarize your home!" Hwoarang protested.

Alex looked behind him to see Max noticing the backdoor.

Hwoarang began to set his gun on the ground.

"Don't move!" The man yelled.

The shotgun he held was propped against his shoulder. Hwoarang could tell he knew how to use it. He figured the gun was a hunter.

"I'm just putting my gun down…" Hwoarang said.

"Move and I blow your ass away." The man said.

Alex glanced at Max, who looked at him through the window.

"Hwoarang…" Alex said.

"Not now." Hwoarang said.

Outside, Max aimed his gun. Inside, Alex tackled Hwoarang to the ground. The movement sent the homeowner into a panic and he fired the shotgun. The buckshot pellets flew over Alex and Hwoarang, and out the kitchen window, hitting Max instead.

The home owner cocked the shotgun. Hwoarang pushed Alex off of him and tackled the home owner to the ground, easily taking the shotgun from him.

Hwoarang wasn't sure how long the assassin would be down. He looked at the home owner, who sat there with complete fear in his eyes. He was expecting to die.

"I'm sorry." Hwoarang said.

Hwoarang hit the home owner in the face with the butt of the shotgun, knocking him unconscious.

Alex got up off the floor and checked outside the broken window. The assassin was gone.

8:11:59 – Jin took a deep breath as he walked across the street to the building.

He couldn't believe how cold it was. It was supposed to get down into the upper thirties tonight, but to Jin it actually felt colder. It was usually warmer than this in Japan. But he also had bigger things to worry about.

He didn't know what the hell was going on. Ling was missing, and this man on the phone wanted him to do something with the bombs that were patiently waiting in the briefcase that he carried with him.

He finally ran across the street and to the door of the building, wanting to get in from the cold. He pulled the door open and was met with a flow of hot air coming from overhead. It acted almost as an equalizer to the inside air, which Jin figured was somewhere around seventy-two.

His phone rang.

"Yeah." Jin said.

"You got a date or something?" The voice said.

"What?" Jin said.

"Why did you run?"

"I was cold." Jin said.

"On your left there should be a security desk. On it is a small envelope." The voice said.

The voice hung up and Jin walked over to the desk. No guard was present. Jin glanced at a TV that showed the lobby. He could see himself on the monitor before it switched to another camera. He saw a small white envelope lying on the desk. The front simply said, "Open this." Inside was a small earpiece. Jin knew what it was for. He put it in.

"Hello?" Jin said.

"Good. Leave your phone on the desk." The voice said.

Jin took the phone from his coat and tossed it on the desk.

"Now, get in the elevator." The voice said.

Jin started walking towards the elevator. He hit the button on the elevator, and the doors immediately opened. Jin walked in.

"Go to the fifth floor." The voice said.

"What the hell am I doing here?" Jin asked.

"You're going to kill a friend."

Jin stood speechless in the elevator as it started to rise.

8:16:35 – Stanson's Honda Accord purred along the north entrance of Grand View Drive. The street was known for its "grand view" of the Illinois River. There was only one side of the street with houses, and at multiple points along the road, anyone could see the river, which in reality was at least a half mile away before you could actually reach water. On a good day, you could see the river for a good long way. To put it simply, you never see the end of it.

But now, nobody could see anything. It was night, and all that could be seen were clusters of lights at points along the riverfront. There were a few streetlights at different points along the road, but the majority of houses had fairly bright lights on them, which in turn, helped to guide drivers at night.

The Accord pulled up in front of Jin's house, and immediately, Stanson and Le Carre knew something was wrong. The front door was still open, and the body of Jin's bodyguard was still lying in the doorway.

Le Carre got out immediately, racing across the large front yard to the body. Stanson got out shortly afterward and raced behind Le Carre.

Le Carre knelt down in front of the agent. He could tell that he was dead, but checked for a pulse anyway. He felt nothing.

"He's dead, Mike." Le Carre said.

Stanson pulled out his cell phone and started punching numbers.

"Yes, this is SAC Stanson of the Peoria field office. I have one agent dead on the scene at 158 Grand View Drive. Get a forensics team over here." Stanson said.

Le Carre pulled out his gun and continued on inside. He cleared the first few rooms, including the kitchen, before Stanson came in behind him.

"First floor clear." Le Carre called out.

"I'll go upstairs." Stanson said, running up the stairs.

"I'll check the basement." Le Carre said.

Le Carre went down stairs and turned on the lights. The first room straight off from the stairs was a storage room, and to his left was a lounge. It had everything – bar, big screen TV and entertainment center, pool table, and dark hardwood floors. It was a pub inside a house. It was nice. Empty, but nice.

"Upstairs clear!" Stanson called out from the second floor.

Le Carre continued into the storage room, and flipped on the lights. Inside was a good sized room that had nothing but a washer and a dryer, a clothes rack, and a small freezer that had some frozen pizzas in it.

"Basement clear!" Le Carre called out.

From behind him, he could hear Stanson coming down the stairs.

"Did he have a chance to close up the tracking system?" Stanson asked.

Le Carre looked around the room as Stanson walked in.

"Tracking system?"

"Yeah. We had it installed when Jin and Hwoarang arrived a couple months ago." Stanson said, moving towards the east wall.

Le Carre watched Stanson as he hit a false stone on the wall, and a portion of it then swung around, revealing a large, futuristic looking computer. It looked like it came straight out of the Bat cave.

"How the hell do you track them?" Le Carre asked.

"They have small microchips imbedded in their shoulder. It sends out a small signal when activated. To them, it'll feel like an itch when I turn it on." Stanson said.

He then hit a button, and a map of Peoria was displayed on the monitor. Then two dots popped up on the monitor. One was in West Peoria, the other was downtown.

"This is Hwoarang right there in the suburbs. He's not exactly at the safehouse, but it looks like he's headed back there. And the other one is Jin, which is who we need." Stanson said.

"What is he doing downtown?" Le Carre asked.

"He's at One Tech Plaza. It's an office building." Stanson said.

"Fine. I'll head there. You go to tell Hwoarang and Alex to meet me there." Le Carre said, walking out of the room and running up the stairs.

"Wait. How the hell are you getting down there?" Stanson asked.

Stanson then heard a garage door opening. He ran outside to see Le Carre driving off in a green Jaguar XKR.

"Damn." Stanson said, pulling out his phone as he ran to his car.

8:23:09 – Courtland Ave was in the center of the north side of the West Peoria neighborhood. For people that lived here, the town divided itself on Rohmann Ave., which had everything the small township would need: a middle school, a car mechanic, a bank, a supermarket, and a McDonalds.

Courtland connected to the main streets of this side of the township. At the top was Heading Ave, which is where the safehouse was located. Any farther north and you would fall a couple hundred feet off a cliff to Farmington Rd., which for this part of town had all the bars, and all the gas stations that one could handle.

Hwoarang and Alex walked off of Courtland and onto Heading. Hwoarang constantly kept looking all over the place, paranoid that another sniper was nearby. Alex didn't blame him. The attack was pretty sudden, and it still was leaving Alex looking behind his back too.

Alex walked into the front yard first, and he could still see the dead body of Albert Wallace lying on the driveway, a blood pool near the man's head. His feet rustled through the leaves on the ground before his feet touched the concrete driveway. Hwoarang made his way through the yard when he suddenly heard a small click. It was enough to get Alex's attention.

"Don't move!" Alex yelled.

Hwoarang froze in place. Panic flowing over his face.

"What was that?" He asked.

"Hold on. I'm going to find out, just don't move." Alex said.

Alex went to the ground by Hwoarang's foot, which was still flat against the ground. He started gingerly digging at the mud.

"Please don't tell me that is what I think it is." Hwoarang said.

After pushing away more dirt, Alex's worst fears, and Hwoarang's, were confirmed.

"It's a mine. A 'Bouncing Betty'." Alex said.

Hwoarang sighed.

"Do you know how to disarm one of these?" Hwoarang asked.

Alex looked up at him.

"Why? Do you?" Alex asked.

"Maybe." Hwoarang asked.

"Well, start talking if you want to get off this thing." Alex said.

Hwoarang stared at the house next door, trying to remember what his old commanders told him during his military training.

"Anything?" Alex asked.

Hwoarang closed his eyes, thinking that visualizing the mine would help.

"It's activated by a three-pronged pressure tip. One wire connects this to the detonator. The pressure tip is connected to the mine itself. It shouldn't be too hard to get it off." Hwoarang said, sounding unsure.

"Well, don't tire out on me. I'm going to try to dig around this thing." Alex said.

Hwoarang took a deep breath. He didn't like this at all.

8:26:46 – Jin calmly walked towards the office door of his friend and colleague, Sampson Knight. He owned this company, and thanks to Jin's donations, he was becoming a big player in the local technology field.

Jin never knew why he got into the business world to begin with. It was Ling's recommendation. She said he was "right for it." He didn't know what he had that he could bring to the table, but to anybody else, it was obvious. It was his presence. Heihachi had it, as did Kazuya. It was the Mishima blood he had in him. People feared the Mishima's. It's what gave them so much power.

Ling set him up with some contacts in the technology field who heard he had a boatload of money, and in turn, invited him to many charity events. He had been to so many of those it had made him sick. He did nothing but meet people for months, and he was getting some of the media's attention, and then the CIA pulled the plug on it all. They told him that he was restricted to Peoria.

From there, he kept it quiet. But about two weeks ago, he met Sampson at a restaurant. Jin had taken Ling to a restaurant called Rizzi's, and Sampson recognized him. Jin decided to call him, and things went from there.

Jin backed his company financially, and things now were going well for Sampson. They just moved into this new building downtown, and the event Jin was at earlier in the day was its grand opening.

From the looks of it, Sampson was the last one in the building besides the missing guard from the front desk. Jin knocked on the office door, afraid of doing what he knew in his heart he would have to do.

"Come on in." Sampson said.

Jin walked on in. Sampson saw him and he got up and gave Jin a big, joyous hug. He was obviously happy.

"What's up man? What are you doing here? I though you were going home." Sampson said.

Jin didn't know what to say. He obviously wasn't going to say, "I'm here to kill you." He wasn't sure how'd he take it.

"No. I'm just wide awake right now."

"Well can I get you a drink?" Sampson asked.

"Uh, sure. Bourbon, whiskey, anything. Just make it hard." Jin said with a sigh.

Jin took off his jacket and sat down on the sofa-like chairs in front of Samson's desk.

"Something bugging you? You seem off, man."

"Something's bugging me alright." Jin said.

Jin had taken the gun out the case in the elevator. It was a small gun that could fit into his pants pocket and it would be easily hidden with his jacket on. But now, the bulge was very noticeable. Jin pulled out the pistol and rested it on one leg.

Sampson set the glass on the desk and went back to his chair. He took one sip of his drink, looked at Jin, and froze. He set the glass on the desk, and nervously chuckled. The mood had gone from that of old friends reuniting to something as serious as staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. It just wasn't funny anymore.

"What are you doing with that?" Sampson asked.

"Sam, just take it easy." Jin said.

"Just kill him and get it over with, Jin. You have work to do." The voice said through the earpiece.

"No, Jin. What the fuck are you doing coming here with a gun? Are you here to kill me?" Sampson asked, raising his voice.

Jin stayed silent. He couldn't say it.

"Do it, Jin. Or else he will call the police, and Ling will die." The voice said.

Sampson got up and darted into the office that connected to his. Jin got up and followed him. Jin saw him on the phone, punching in numbers. He raised the gun at him.

"Put the phone down, Sam." Jin said.

Sampson stopped, the line already ringing.

"Why? If you're going to kill me, I want to know why." Sampson said.

"I'm sorry; they have her." Jin said.

The 911 operator came over the line. The receiver was still in Sampson's hand. He raised it to his ear.

"I have a man in…" Sampson said.

Jin fired the gun twice. The bullets hit Sampson right in the chest, killing him instantly. Jin ran over to the phone and hit the hang up button. He couldn't believe what he just did.

8:31:50 – "How are you doing?" Alex asked.

"My leg could be better. It's becoming a little sore."

"I thought you were a Tae Kwon Do ace." Alex said.

"Just because I know how flash my feet around doesn't mean I can stay in this same position without moving. It's not easy." Hwoarang said.

Alex noticed the stress in his voice. Hwoarang was obviously tired, and he made a good point. The position required him to keep his left leg extended out, which was the foot to hit the ground first while walking. The leg muscles flex, and this was definitely a test of endurance.

Hwoarang just wanted this all to be over. He wanted to be able to go back inside and sleep. It had been a long day as it was.

"Ok. I can see the pressure tip." Alex said.

Hwoarang looked at Alex, who had a flashlight aimed at the mine.

"Ok. The tip is basically just melted plastic. If we can get that off without setting it off, we'll be fine." Hwoarang said.

Alex looked up at him with concern.

"What happens if it goes off?" Alex asked.

"The pressure tip will release a decent amount of pressurized air, the mine will then bounce into the air, and detonate." Hwoarang said.

"Ok. Wish me luck." Alex said.

"Don't fuck this up, man." Hwoarang said, worried.

Alex took a pocket knife out of his pocket and opened a very sharp blade. He started to carefully slice under the rounded edge of the pressure tip, which was easier said than done. Hwoarang's foot was no more than an inch above the bottom of the tip itself.

"How's it coming?" Hwoarang asked.

Alex was getting closer to the inside of the mine. He made another small slice, and a blast of air came out of the mine. The pressure tip went off.

"Shit!" Hwoarang yelled.

Hwoarang fell backwards onto the ground, taking his foot off the mine. It was going to go off. Alex moved back from the mine, waiting for it to eject itself from the ground. But nothing happened. The mine was still imbedded in the dirt.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments.

"It's a dud?" Hwoarang said.

"That can't be." Alex said.

Alex got up and looked at the mine. The pressure plate was completely detached from the mine. He picked it up.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hwoarang asked.

Alex took one look at the inside of the mine through the hold that was left from the tip. He shook his head and threw it at Hwoarang. Hwoarang freaked out and got up.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You don't throw a mine at somebody like that!"

"You do if it won't blow up." Alex said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"There never were any explosives in there. There's not even shrapnel." Alex said.

"Huh?"

Hwoarang picked up the mine and started to look inside it.

8:38:21 – Alex noticed a car coming down the street. The one good thing about having a house here is that you can tell who is going to drive by, and who plans on making a stop. People who pass don't bother slowing down, while the ones who are here for a reason slow down, unsure of which house they are trying to find.

This car was slowing down, and it pulled up along the curb. Alex pulled his gun out, thinking that it may be another assassin. But what assassin would be stupid to pull up like this?

Stanson got out of the car, raising his hands.

"Don't shoot." Stanson said.

Alex put down his gun.

"Jesus, Mike. What the hell are you doing here?"

"We've got problems."

"Tell me about it. We just attacked by a hit man." Alex said.

"You're kidding?"

"No. Look over there. Albert Wallace is dead. A sniper got him, and then continued after us. We happened to loose him." Alex said.

"How?"

"Long story. Look, Wallace told us that there were assassins after Jin, Hwoarang, and possibly others. He gave us a disk." Alex said.

Alex and Stanson continued to the middle of the yard. Alex pulled out the disk and gave it to Stanson.

"Well, this might be a bigger problem than we thought. Jin's on the run. We found his body guard dead on Jin's door step." Stanson said.

Hwoarang tossed the mine onto the ground and came over to Stanson and Alex.

"Where is he?" Hwoarang asked.

"We tracked him to a building downtown, One Technology Plaza. Le Carre is headed there now. He wants both of you to meet him there." Stanson said.

"Le Carre's ok?" Hwoarang asked.

"He's fine."

"What about you?" Alex asked.

"I got to get back to the Operations Center. I'll be running point from there. If you need anything, call me. I'll also get a team over to collect Wallace's body." Stanson said, heading back to his car.

"Thanks." Alex said.

Hwoarang headed towards his car. Alex followed.

8:41:44 – Max continued walking down a small courtyard off of Adams St. in downtown. Most of the horizontal streets downtown are named after Presidents. The last three streets before hitting the Illinois River, which seems to snake along the edge of the city, are Jefferson, Adams, and Washington.

The wound in his shoulder burned. But it wasn't the first time he'd ever been shot. If one were to look at his body, he had close to six different scars directly related to gunshot wounds.

He was thankful that the bastard with the shotgun loaded it with buckshot instead of loading it with 12 gauge shells. If it had been the latter, he'd be missing an arm. The wound bled under his wool coat that he took from his car, which had originally be parked closed to the safe house, but was now not more than a block away.

Max walked into the parking garage across from the Civic Center, which is where most of the big events in Peoria played. The garage was brightly lit with sulfur colored lights, which Max realized was a reoccurring color all over the city. The dull orange color was beginning to get on his nerves.

He entered a stairwell and moved up two stories. He got off on the third floor. Max didn't know where Sarah would choose such a noticeable place to meet. Her car was the only one on this floor of the deck. Max got in the passenger's side.

"My god. You're bleeding!" she exclaimed.

Sarah was in her mid-twenties. Max's employer, William Amstel, had sent her along to help with Intel. She was mildly attractive – long, brown hair; green eyes, and one hell of a sense of humor.

"I'm fine." Max said.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I was shot. But I cleaned it up. I just need to put some more gauze on it." Max said.

"Ok. I've got some updates for you."

"What?"

"The Mabinko's are in town. Word has it that they are tracking everything after it happens." She said.

"That's how they work. They track, then jump ahead to catch their targets off guard." Max said.

"Any luck with Hwoarang?" she asked.

"No. The bastard's still moving. But Wallace is dead. Report that to Amstel."

"I will. Jin's here in downtown. He's running all over the place it seems."

"I see. Chances are that Hwoarang's going to be coming after him. You have access to my ride?" Max asked.

"You mean your decommissioned Apache? Yeah, I do."

"Prep it. I'll let you know if I need it." Max said, getting out of the car.

"Good luck." Sarah said as he closed the door.

8:48:58 – Hwoarang drove his Hummer down Washington towards downtown. The thing about a lot of the streets in downtown is that they are very long. Adams, for example, goes from the south end of Peoria, and runs along the river, and finally ends at the northeast side of the city. It goes on for miles.

But downtown was coming up. Hwoarang looked off to his left as he passed InPlay, which was a large arcade, known for its Sports Bar on the second floor.

"What do you think Jin is doing down here?" Hwoarang asked.

"Probably hiding." Alex said.

"He's not like that. If somebody were going to kill him, he would fight." Hwoarang said.

"Here it is." Alex said.

One Technology Plaza was right on a corner. Hwoarang wondered why it was called that when the two streets that crossed its path weren't named "Technology Plaza".

He parked the car, and got out. They both went inside.

Hwoarang looked at the security desk, where he saw a cell phone sitting on the desk.

"He left his cell phone here." Hwoarang said.

Alex walked over to the elevators. Both elevators were on the fifth floor.

"Maybe he was forced to leave it." Alex suggested, hitting the button.

Once the elevator came, Hwoarang and Alex got in.

"What do you think is going on?" Alex asked.

"No clue. This isn't like him. He should have called me." Hwoarang said.

"He's not usually this reckless?"

"Far from it. He's by the books, predictable." Hwoarang said.

"And is that why you haven't been able to beat him in a fight yet?" Alex said with a grin on his face.

Hwoarang stared at him. That hurt.

"Shut up." He said.

The elevator reached the fifth floor. The hallway was L-shaped. There was an office at the end of the hall before the turn that was wide open. Alex had his gun out, but Hwoarang didn't bring one.

Alex made his way into the office first. He started searching around. Hwoarang stayed outside. He looked down the other end of the hall, and out of nowhere, he saw Jin step outside.

"Jin!" he called out.

Jin didn't even look at him. He fired a blind shot at him, missing completely, and ran off.

"I got him!" Hwoarang called out to Alex.

Alex had other things on his mind. He had just looked behind the desk of Sampson Knight when he saw something he never expected: a bomb. It didn't have a visible timer, but a pulsing red light told him that it was active.

Outside the office, Hwoarang ran after Jin. The hall turned right again, which ended with the stairwell entrance. Jin slammed into the stairwell door, opening it. He ran down the stairs. Hwoarang stopped a second, not sure if it was him.

"Jin! It's me!" he called out.

Behind him, an office door opened and a large pair of arms grabbed him from behind, and pulled him inside.

8:54:27 – Jin continued to race down the stairs, not sure or caring if the man who was after him was still pursuing. He had done his job, and the voice in the earpiece had told him to leave. He just wanted to get out before the authorities arrived. He was in a panic.

He reached the lobby and raced out the front doors. He started looking across the street to make sure nobody saw him. There was one person, and Jin recognized him instantly: Gavin Le Carre.

"Jin?" Le Carre called out.

Jin panicked again, and ran out onto Adams, heading west. Le Carre looked at a PDA he had on him. The map showed the tracking signals – Hwoarang was still on the fifth floor, and Jin was on Adams heading towards the Maxam building, which housed InPlay.

He didn't know who to go after.

8:56:34 – Alex looked across the connecting room and saw the body of Sampson Knight. How was this place connected? Was he dead when Jin arrived? What was the purpose of the bomb?

Alex was puzzled. The files in the office didn't show anything suspicious. Alex had already called Stanson and ordered in a bomb squad, and they would be on their way.

The only things that were certain was that Jin was on the run for some reason and Hwoarang was currently chasing him.

Alex began to exit the office when Hwoarang suddenly flew past the doorway and smack into a wall.

"Hwoarang!" he exclaimed.

Hwoarang collapsed to the ground unconscious. Alex looked in the direction he came flying from to see to large African men stalking down the hall.

Hwoarang began to stir. He began coughing and got up to his knees. Alex pulled out his gun and aimed it at the twins, whose shadows began tower over the two.

8:59:57…

8:59:58…

8:59:59…

9:00:00…

Author's Notes: I always say, "Better late than never." Day Two is finally under way and I'm finding that this story is far more cerebral than the last one. The next upcoming chapters are going to show some interesting sides to the characters we thought we knew. Meaning, they'll be doing and experiencing some new things. Which is technically what fan fiction is meant to be, I think. Chapter three and possibly four will be up by the 18th of this month, which happens to be my first day back to class.

The fun thing about this story for me is that it takes place in the city I've lived in my whole life. It's not exactly a thrill ride of a town, but it definitely could be used in a situation like this.

Like an audio commentary, there are some interesting tidbits to share about some of the locations.

Le Carre's safehouse on the south side happens to be the house I grew up in. I loved that house…

The safehouse where Hwoarang and Alex live is the house I currently live in.

And finally, Jin's house belongs to a friend of mine. Every detail in each location is true to the word. That is my goal for this story. To not only be true to the time, but to be true to the actual locations, while throwing in a few of mine own at the same time.

I will also be revamping the Day Two soundtrack. These songs are just meant to accompany the story in terms of mood and what may have helped me write this long, twisted story of espionage. I'm going to try to give one or two songs per chapter.

This week I only have one, and I felt it is a good companion with the first half of this story. The song is "So Cold" by "Breaking Benjamin". So until next week, enjoy!


	4. 9:00 pm 10:00 pm

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

The following takes place between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm.

Events occur in real time.

9:00:00 – Alex Winterfall would be the first one to admit it. He always seemed to get in way over his head sooner or later. Ever since he was a kid, he always seemed to do that.

Right now was no exception. Two giant men, the Mabinko brothers, stalked down the hall toward him slowly, looking at him with a relentless and murderous intent.

They had made short order of Hwoarang, who was still lying on the floor, trying to get up.

The one advantage the Mabinko's always had was their height. Zesiro was around seven foot, while his brother, Oringo, was just slightly taller. As assassins, they both always tended to be one step ahead of the competition.

Alex had his gun pointed at Zesiro, his hands beginning to shake. He could hear Hwoarang moaning on the floor.

"Stop right there!" Alex yelled out.

The twins never stopped.

Alex then grabbed Hwoarang's arm and forced him up off the floor. He then circled back to the elevator, dragging the groggy Korean with him.

"I'm fine." Hwoarang said, shaking off the aid.

Alex let him go and hit the button for the elevator. It had been called back to the lobby.

"Shit!" Alex said.

The Mabinko's turned down the hall towards them. Alex aimed his gun at them.

"I'm warning you. Stop or I will shoot." Alex said.

"Try me." Zesiro said.

Alex let off one shot, and it went directly into Zesiro's chest, but he still moved.

"That slug won't cut through my Kevlar. Try it again."

"Fine by me," a voice said from behind.

The Mabinko's stopped dead in their tracks, and a shot rang out. Oringo then sank to the floor, the bullet in the back of his head killing him instantly.

Zesiro turned around to see that Gavin Le Carre was holding a gun on him. It was then that his rage came to a boiling point.

It's rare to see somebody so angry immediately after the death of a loved one. Zesiro screamed at Le Carre in a mad rage. Le Carre stammered back, obviously freaked.

Hwoarang came running up behind Zesiro and kicked him hard in the groin. Zesiro stood up. Hwoarang took a step back and swung his foot around, slamming it into the left side of his head, which crushed it, hard into the wall. Zesiro collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

"Damn," Alex said, looking on in surprise.

Le Carre came up to Hwoarang, who was still staring at Zesiro.

"We should go," Le Carre said.

"Where's Jin?" Hwoarang asked.

Le Carre pulled out his PDA. Jin was racing towards InPlay, just as he figured.

"He's going to InPlay. If we hurry, we can catch him there." Le Carre said.

The three ran to the stairwell.

9:06:01 – Jin walked into the main lobby of InPlay. Right now, there was nobody at the front desk. Jin walked past it towards the elevators.

The first floor held mainly kid games like ski-ball, a mole whacking game, and other various games where you could collect tickets. These could be turned in for items that a nine-year old would kill for.

Jin stood at the elevator. He hadn't received instructions in a few minutes since he left the last building. He wasn't sure what to do.

"Can you hear me?" Jin asked.

"Loud and clear. You were headed in the right direction. Go upstairs to the bar." The voice said.

Jin hit the button for the elevator, and got in. He knew what the voice was going to ask him.

"I hope you have the bombs on you." The voice said.

"I do. You want me to plant one in the bar?" Jin asked.

"You're a genius. I don't even need to tell you."

The doors opened and Jin walked out. The second floor held games for older individuals. There was a small bowling alley, set up with strung-up pins and small, grapefruit sized balls. Multiple "Time Crisis"- type games lined the floor, as well as games that were so old or absurd that they made the place look outdated.

Jin continued into the bar. The bar was against the wall, next to the enterance. On the other side was an oversized horse racing game, dart boards, and pool tables. The seating areas were in the center of the bar. Jin sat at the bar.

Tonight looked dead. There were only a few other people in the bar, including a couple obnoxious college students playing darts in the far corner of the room. The bartender came up to him.

"What can I get you?" she asked.

Jin sighed. He didn't know what he would have wanted.

"Uh, two shots of Tequila Rose." He said, tossing a twenty on the bar.

"Eight dollars," she said.

"Keep the change," he said.

"Thanks," she said happily.

That made her night. She brought over his shots and he pulled out a bomb from his pocket and slapped it under the bar. He then had his shots.

9:10:44 – Stanson knew it was going to be another long night. He had worked in the Peoria office for six years, and shit storms like this were rare.

Six months ago, when Hwoarang and Jin were placed under protective custody, he knew this had to come to a head eventually. He knew what happened in Tokyo, and could tell that it wasn't going to go away quietly.

Stanson quietly parked his car on Water St., oddly enough, not too far from where Jin currently was. The Sears block was a valuable item to the city, even if it had been abandoned years ago.

This specific block was dark, and very easy to hide at this time of night. Even a tall guy wearing a bright white pimp suit could blend into the concrete walls of the building.

Stanson yawned as he pulled the keychain from his pocket. It was getting a bit colder than it normally did in early November. He fumbled with the keys before finding the one that opened the doors to the building.

Once inside, the floor was completely empty; the air thick with dust. Stanson pulled out his flashlight and looked at the floor, same as he did every night. The floor was barren. Memories of the old Sears store that used to be here came to mind - The customers who shopped on a Sunday morning, the many racks of clothes, the children's department, etc.

Stanson glanced to his right. The old escalators were still powered down. He figured that if they city ever got around to using the building again, they would have to replace them. Hell, it probably wasn't even safe to just walk up the stairs on them.

To his left was the only actual powered source on the whole lot – The elevator. He walked over to the door and hit the down button. It's light was bright enough to illuminate the floor about five feet away from the door.

The door opened and he walked in. To his left were three buttons labeled 1, 2, and 3 respectively. But the odd source was a key hole under the third button. Stanson once again fumbled with the keys and slid it into the slot. He then hit all of the buttons in what seemed to be a random order.

The doors closed, and the elevator moved down. It only took about ten seconds before it stopped. The doors opened, and the light from the room made Stanson squint temporarily.

He was in the Peoria field office of the CIA's Counter Terrorist Unit, better known as the CTU.

He had been to many different branches of CTU all over the country, and this one was by far one of the smallest. The Los Angeles branch was at least five times the size of this one, and had about the more in the size of manpower as well. Better much everything was better.

The elevator was in the back of the room, dividing the two offices that were reserved for the people who ran the office. Stanson's office was to the right, and was the nicer one of the two. The other office belonged to Sarah Nixon, his second-in-command. She was a good worker, but Stanson didn't know her very well.

She came in about two months ago as a transfer from St. Louis, and he accepted her with open arms. Stanson felt that the more people that worked in this small office, the better. It would bring morale up. Somebody once told him as a joke that the only efficient way to solve morale problems is just to fire all the unhappy people. Stanson didn't think that would really work in this case.

In front of the offices was what CTU offices across the country had dubbed, "The Floor." It was where all the main investigations took place. If anything happened, these people could do anything with a computer. They could coordinate satellites, trace phone calls, hack into almost any database in the world, and just about anything you could think of.

But since this was just Peoria, and not New York or L.A., he only had two people on the floor right now. The other shift, which included four other people, had already been sent home for the night.

The first person he trusted was his little sister, Nicole. Her specialty was hacking, and she was starting to get a knack for satellite imagery. The second person was Thomas Adams. He was mainly a backup hacker with a specialty for financial systems, but he could analyze data better than anyone here.

Stanson walked towards Thomas' desk, when Sarah ran past him.

"Hey, I need to talk to you." She asked.

"I'll be there in a second." He replied.

Thomas glanced at him as he came over, holding the disk that Wallace had retrieved.

"Stanson, what's up?"

"Hey, Tom. I need you to analyze this disk, see if you can find out when it was made, who made it, and where." He asked.

"What is it?"

"It has dossier files on a couple people who have been placed in protective custody and on a couple assassins who had been hired to kill them."

"Ok, I'll call you when I get something." Tom said.

"Great." Stanson said, walking off.

He broke off and walked into Sarah's office. She was glancing at her computer.

"What do you need?" Stanson asked.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"I was about to announce that. I'm setting a Level 1 Standard Protocol. This thing with Hwoarang is trickier than I thought. I need you to work Communications, while I run Tactical. I'm about to give Division a call. I could use all the help I can get."

"Anything else?"

"I want you to work with Tom on decoding a disk I got from Albert Wallace. Whenever you get something, report to me." He said, running out of the office again.

"Ok." She said.

9:17:49 – Jin stood at the table in front of the dart board he was currently playing on. The bartender suggested it after Jin bought the bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label and started to shake at the far end of the bar.

Jin was playing Cricket. He had gotten pretty good at it actually. The game consisted of a group of numbers that the players had to specifically aim and hit. After three hits, it was closed out and the player could no longer score off that number. Whoever closed every assigned number first, won. But nobody could do that, the highest score won.

He poured another shot of the scotch whiskey into his glass, glancing at the brown colored liquor for a second. He admired the sophistication it gave to the person who drank it. It wasn't just about the brand name. But anybody who drank straight scotch was seen as somebody who had seen how harsh the world could be, and this was just what calmed him down. Almost as if he was a wise man, and this was the elixir of life that kept him the way he was.

Jin shook his head, getting out of the daydream. He downed the scotch and then faced the board, dart in hand. He only needed one more shot to finish the game, and that was a double bull's eye. He threw the dart and hit it dead on. He won.

"You still there?" the voice chimed in.

"I was wondering when you'd call." Jin said.

"I need you to leave, now."

"You know what? Fuck you. You're only going to kill Ling anyways. Even if I do everything you ask, how do I know that you're going to be true to your word?" Jin asked.

"You have my word that I will blow up the bombs you are carrying if you don't do what I say. Even if Ling did die, I doubt you would want to join her?" the voice said.

The sick bastard had once again backed him into a corner he couldn't talk his way out of. He would have to play along. Maybe when he met the guy he could break his skull open, knowing that he had sent Jin into a state of rage that may be out of anybody's control.

"Where to boss?" he asked.

"Sully's. It's up on Adams. About two blocks north of you." The voice said.

"I know where it is." Jin said, heading towards the staircase.

He started to walk down the stairs, when he heard some familiar voices. The staircase he was on was on the opposite side of the floor from the elevators, and he was a bit hidden from view due to the games that were on the floor.

He couldn't quite place the voices, but then Hwoarang popped into view and hit the button on the elevator. Jin hugged the wall, hoping to not be seen.

9:23:16 – Hwoarang slapped the button on the elevator.

"Is he here?" Hwoarang asked as Le Carre and Alex reached the elevator.

Le Carre looked at the PDA he had with him.

"Yeah. According to this, he's somewhere in the building." Le Carre said.

The doors to the elevator opened and they all went in.

"He's got to be upstairs at the bar." Hwoarang said.

"Why would he be there? He just killed somebody." Alex said.

Hwoarang gave a bit of a grin to Alex. "If you knew how much he loved whiskey, you'd go here too. Besides, I doubt he's here to play video games." Hwoarang said.

The doors opened and they rushed out into the bar. The bartender stopped dead in his tracks, not sure what was really going on. There was nobody else there.

"Dammit," Hwoarang said, walking over to the window.

Hwoarang glanced out into the street, and noticed somebody running across the street. He didn't think anything of it at first, but it finally registered to him.

"I got him!" he said, running out the bar and towards the stairwell.

It left Alex scrambling to catch up.

"Le Carre, track him!" Alex said as he raced after Hwoarang.

Downstairs, Hwoarang burst out the front door, and raced across the street. He figured that Jin would try to loose him in a crowded area. The only logical choice at this point would be to go into a bar or club. It would be his only chance. The problem was that Main St. was nearly three blocks away to the east, and that there were nearly fifteen different places he could hide once he reached that street.

Alex was about thirty feet behind Hwoarang, and that distance was increasing. He knew that Hwoarang was fast, but not this fast. He could give most track runners a run for their money, no pun intended.

His phone rang.

"What?" he yelled.

"He's going into Club Tonic." Le Carre said.

"Where are you?" Alex asked.

"I'm grabbing the car."

"Fine. Meet us up here. I'm almost in." Alex said.

9:30:47 – Jin calmly walked into the club, showing his ID at the door. He paid the cover and walked on in with the rest of the crowd he had blended in with.

Inside, loud techno music was played over the speakers. To his left was the bar, and next to that was the DJ's booth. To his right was another bar, but a bit smaller, followed by small dimly lit seating area where one could synchronize the music with their minds and not with their bodies.

"Get to the DJ's booth." the voice said.

Jin noticed a stairwell next to the booth on the back wall. He began to push through the crowds when he heard someone yell out back at the entrance.

He looked back to see Hwoarang push his way inside. Jin knew that Hwoarang could see him. He just hoped that he could make a hasty exit after he fulfilled this request.

Jin entered the stairwell, and was met by a bouncer coming back down to the dance floor. Jin seemed a bit stirred. The man was tall; built, but overweight and was wearing a tight black t-shirt that had the club's logo smacked on the back.

"This is a restricted area, go back." The bouncer said.

"I'm sorry." Jin said.

"Nothing to be sorry about, you just can't be here." The bouncer said.

"No, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do." Jin said.

Jin walked forward and attempted a straight jab to the man's face. The bouncer swatted away Jin's arm, which is what he wanted. Jin used his extended arm to grab the bouncer's arm, twisted it, and pulled forward. This set the man's shoulder at Jin's abdomen. Jin then grabbed the back of his head with his free arm and started to knee him in the face. Then, to finish him off, he rammed the man into the brick wall head on and then threw him down the stairs.

Hwoarang entered the stairwell just as the main hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Jin stood at the top, frozen. He hadn't seen Hwoarang all day.

"Jin, what the hell are you doing?" he said, catching his breath.

Jin didn't respond at first. The voice had never said anything about talking to anyone if he was cornered.

"What do you want me to do?" Jin asked.

"Get out of there." The voice said.

"Jin, what is going on? Talk to me!" Hwoarang yelled.

Jin noticed an emergency exit next to him, and he bolted, fiddling with the door. It gave enough time for Hwoarang to try to push him away from the door.

Jin wasn't about to let that happen. He elbowed Hwoarang in the throat, then punched him in the face. Hwoarang stumbled back a bit, and Jin then picked him up by the neck.

"What are you doing?" Hwoarang managed to gurgle out.

"I'm sorry. He has her." Jin said.

He then viciously threw Hwoarang down the stairs, and finally escaped out the door.

9:34:12 – Sarah Nixon was an enigma at times. No one had any idea that she was the intermediary between some of the assassins and her employer, William Amstel.

She sat at her desk inside CTU, and stared at the monitor. Her current job at the moment was to check on Hwoarang and Jin's locations and relay them to Max.

She had hacked into the CIA's server and discovered the tracking signals implanted into the two targets, and watched the little orange dot fumble about on the screen. One just now broke off from the other and was headed south on Main. St.

Sarah was skilled at one thing – deception. So far, she had deceived the CIA for four years. But when Amstel told her to infiltrate this office, she knew she had met her match.

Michael Stanson was a cunning man. According to his file, he had worked in the Psy-Ops division for a little over a year before being promoted to a special agent. He transferred to here, and since then, life had been normal. But he had one gift, which is the reason he was promoted – he knew how to read people. Supposedly, he could tell if you were lying under any circumstances.

She worried that she wasn't good enough to keep her cover, but she figured that she would worry about that when the time came. If her cover was blown, she had a way out, and that's all that really mattered.

She uploaded the location of Jin and Hwoarang to her PDA and disconnected from the server. Her phone rang.

"CTU, Nixon." She said.

"Hey babe, you got their coordinates yet?" Max asked.

She immediately quieted down. She had no clue why he called, and honestly, she was tempted to hang up. If Stanson was ever cautious, he would be checking the call logs to the offices.

"Are you fucking insane? If Stanson beings to suspect me at all, this is one sure way to confirm where I really stand." She said.

"I'm not going to worry if he finds out; I know you won't let him tell anyone else. You may act like a ditz, but you sure know how to kick someone's ass." Max said.

"I'm going to kick your ass for putting me in this position. Are you ready for the upload?" she asked.

"Yeah. Send it." He said.

She hit the send button on the PDA, and the progress bar began to fill. Just then, Stanson walked in. Smoothly, she set the PDA on her lap, hoping Stanson wouldn't see it.

"Uh, yeah. He just walked in. I'll talk to you later, hon." She said, hanging up the phone.

Stanson stood in front of the desk as she ended the call.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"Boyfriend. He wanted to go out to eat tonight. I told him that I was still working." She said.

"Got anything on the source of that disk?"

"No. Tom's still working on it. He said we should have something soon, though." She said.

"Ok. When you got something, call me." He said.

"Will do."

She glanced down at the PDA as he left the room. The upload was complete.

9:39:44 – Hwoarang sat in the car as he, Le Carre, and Alex raced to follow Jin after he escaped from the nightclub. He wasn't sure what was up, but he did know a few things. He definitely knew his head hurt like hell after being thrown from the top of the stairs.

"Where is he going?" Alex asked.

Le Carre looked at his PDA.

"From the looks of it, he just entered Roxy's. It should be up ahead.

"I know it." Alex said.

"What do you have planned?" Hwoarang asked, still tending to the bruise on the back of his head.

"I was planning on sending you in, while we sit outside in case he tries to get out." Alex said.

Hwoarang groaned.

"That's brilliant." He said.

The car pulled up outside the club.

Roxy's was always interesting. It was a club on two floors, it was literally on the riverfront, and it had a deck that sat out over the water.

Hwoarang got out and walked up the steps to the doors, where two bouncers stood. They didn't look very friendly.

The first bouncer put out his hand to stop him from entering.

"I need to see some ID, pal." He said.

"You got to be kidding." Hwoarang said.

He pulled out a badge that he had gotten from Alex when they were headed to One Tech Plaza. It was a temporary, so he didn't have an ID to go with it. He only had his driver's license to back him up. He flashed it to the bouncer, hoping it would work.

"Whoa, son. That's not going to work," he said, "I'm going to need to see a photo."

"Do you even realize that this is a CIA badge? There's a friend of mine who is in trouble in there. I'm trying to find him before he hurts somebody."

"Yeah right. Show me some ID and pay the 20 cover and you can find all the friends you want." The bouncer said.

Hwoarang had had enough.

"Don't make me force my way in." he said.

The bouncers immediately reacted to this. It was like music to their ears. A threat they could act on.

"Why don't you just get out of here? You don't want to make us kick you out."

"You don't want to push me," he said.

The bouncer that was sitting off in the sidelines started to come up behind him. The other one that had been bad-mouthing him started to come towards him.

Hwoarang raised his left leg up behind him and kicked the guard behind him in the face, sending him down the stairs. Then Hwoarang flipped around, and back kicked the other guard in the face with the same leg. The guard spun around and collapsed on the ground.

Hwoarang continued to walk in, but not before throwing a twenty dollar bill on the bouncer's chest.

"Thanks for the thrill, fellas." He said.

9:41:25 – Jin walked up the stairs to the second floor of the club. He didn't know what the hell the voice wanted now. He missed planting the bomb at Tonic, and now he was here. All the voice had said was to go to the bathroom on the second floor.

Roxy's was set up in two different sections. The first floor was nothing but one big bar, and then there was the outside deck for everyone to lounge and chill. The second floor was for the people who wanted to escape in the beat of the music. To most teenagers and young adults these days, this was bliss. Drinking, drugs, and dancing: The three D's of today's youth.

Jin walked into the bathroom, and then shut and locked the door.

"Ok. I'm here." He said.

"There's a knife tapped under the sink. Get it." The voice said.

Jin felt the knife and took it. It was a small butterfly knife.

"Ok." He said.

"Now remove your shirt." The voice commanded.

"What?" he said.

"Just do it."

Jin took his jacket off, followed by his shirt. He stared at himself in the mirror, making a note to hit the gym more if he survives this. He used to be more built.

"Done."

"On your back, upper right side behind your shoulder is a small bump. Feel for it."

Jin wasn't sure what he was talking about, and it was starting to spook him a little. Here he was: no shirt, knife in hand, and being told to look for something on his back. But whatever it was, he felt it.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Cut it out." The voice said.

"You're kidding? What the hell is it?" Jin asked.

"Doesn't matter what it is. Cut it out of your back, and we can move on."

Jin took his shirt and rolled a bit of it up, and put it in his mouth. Something had to muffle the scream he was about to let out.

He took the knife and cut in, blood immediately coming out. He screamed into the shirt, tears beginning to flow. He quickly made an opening in his back and squeezed the wound. A small capsule came out and fell onto the floor.

He took the shirt out of his mouth, breathing hard. He glanced at his back in the mirror. A small line of blood had run down his back and onto his pants.

"Got it?" the voice asked.

Jin looked down at the floor at the small capsule.

"Yeah." Jin said.

"Destroy it."

Jin thought about it for a second, and then slammed his foot down on it.

9:49:18 – Hwoarang couldn't find him on the second floor. Jin had to have been in with the crowd, and there was a surefire chance that he could have gone back downstairs.

Hwoarang figured that he would go back outside and just wait for Jin to leave the building. Just then, his phone rang.

"Yeah." Hwoarang said.

"It's Le Carre."

"What's up?"

"I've lost him. I don't know how, but his signal isn't on the screen anymore." Le Carre said.

"What? How the hell did that happen? Where was he when you lost him?" Hwoarang asked.

"Somewhere on the first floor." Le Carre said.

Hwoarang came down the stairs and glanced across the room, and saw Jin. It was almost odd. They both saw each other at the same time.

Jin bolted out the front door and Hwoarang followed.

"He's coming out, stop him!" Hwoarang shouted into the phone.

Hwoarang slapped the phone shut and darted out the door. Outside, Jin purposely pushed into Alex, knocking him over. Jin continued on towards Main St. again. Hwoarang continued to run after him.

"Follow us around and cut him off!" he yelled as he continued on.

9:53:00 – Stanson sat in his office. He just got off the phone with Division, the local head office. Due to the reasonably high threat, they were sending over a District Deputy Director from Chicago. They figured that she would be there within the next few hours.

Stanson brought up his daily logs on the computer. They displayed everything from phone logs to satellite requests, to data transfers.

The logs where always fairly short. Not much happened, and anything that wasn't normal was easy to spot, and Stanson found one on the last page.

He saw a data transfer from Sarah to an outside source, which was at the same time as a phone call to a secured line.

"Boyfriend my ass." He said.

He picked up the phone and dialed.

"CTU," Tom said.

"Tom, I need you to do something for me." He said.

"What's up?"

"I need you to watch Sarah's system for me."

"I'm going to need her password…" Tom started.

"She can't know." Stanson interrupted.

"Why? Is she doing something wrong?"

"Maybe. That's why I'm doing this. I'll give you my password. It'll override hers and get you in."

"What is it?" Tom asked.

"6-7-Delta-1-0-Charlie-Omega." He said.

"I'll get right on it." Tom said.

"Remember – Sarah can know nothing about this." Stanson said.

He then hung up the phone.

9:57:39 – Hwoarang sprinted up Main St, running across busy streets hoping to get some gain on Jin.

He lost sight of him about two blocks ago, and since then, he had been focusing on the wrong person.

Looking at the club names, he realized he was back up by Tonic. Jin wouldn't have gone back this far, he would have turned off somewhere.

"Dammit." Hwoarang said, pulling out his phone.

He then punched in Alex's number.

"You got him?" Alex asked.

"I lost him. Did you see him on the way up?" Hwoarang asked.

"No. Is it possible that he could have just gone into another bar?" Alex asked.

In the distance, a distinct thumping sound started to grow louder.

"Yeah, I guess it is. But…" Hwoarang said.

The noise was getting louder and drowning out any noise he could hear from Alex. He glanced up and out of nowhere, a helicopter came circling around onto Main St. and stopped. Hwoarang then noticed Max was flying.

"Oh, shit." He said.

Hwoarang dropped the phone and turned around to start running, but instead walked straight into the trap.

A man stood behind him, and Hwoarang had run straight into his waiting stun gun. Hwoarang shook and screamed before falling unconscious on the sidewalk.

The man picked up his body and took him to the helicopter.

In the distance, Alex and Le Carre were coming up on it's position. The helicopter began to take off and Alex jumped out of the car.

It was too late. It was already too far in the air.

9:59:57…

9:59:58…

9:59:59…

10:00:00…


	5. 10:00 pm 11:00 pm

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

Note: This story may contain scenes of graphic violence, strong language, adult situations, and maybe even nudity, and therefore may unsuitable for children under 14. Reader discretion is advised.

PS – Text marked with " " is dialogue that is not spoken, but typed.

Author's Note: I really didn't want to put that there, but I lost a bet to a friend. So there…

The following takes place between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm.

Events occur in real time.

10:00:00 – The helicopter flew off, leaving Alex wondering what was really going on.

Where did they come from? How did they know where he would be? How the hell did they get a helicopter to land on city streets?

Le Carre called over to him, distracting Alex from the infinite number of questions speeding through his head.

"I can track them on here," Le Carre said, pointing to his PDA.

"Great," Alex said, hopping back into the car.

He immediately pulled out his cell phone as he sped off, barely giving Le Carre enough time to get back inside.

"CTU, Stanson."

"They got Hwoarang," Alex said.

"Is he dead?" Stanson asked.

"No. They took him by helicopter. We're going to be tracking him." Alex said.

"Ok. We'll be tracking the helicopter by satellite." Stanson said.

"Great. I'll get back to you." Alex said.

Alex stared at the road ahead as they started to leave downtown, the car traveling at high speed.

10:02:16 - Jin stared out the front window of the pub, which wasn't more than fifty feet away from where Hwoarang was taken.

The Voice couldn't have done this. Jin figured it had to be something else. Did The Voice have somebody working for him? Even if he did, something so ostentatious wasn't his style. The Voice was the type who was quiet and subtle.

"What did you do?" Jin asked.

The Voice came through on the earpiece.

"My job."

"Why Hwoarang? I've been evading him successfully."

"You must not have realized by now that this is bigger than just you and me. There are others like me out there, and we all have the same objective." The Voice said.

"What's that?" Jin asked.

"To kill the lot of you."

"Who?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

Jin couldn't believe what was going on. It wasn't just one person running this, but The Voice almost sounded like a minor player.

Outside, there were multiple assassins trying to kill him, Hwoarang, and God knows who else. The Voice was one of these people, and there was somebody higher up, something that scared Jin senseless. But there was only one thing that Jin could do in order to gain some leverage, and he knew he could be risking Ling's life as well as his own.

"What now?" he asked.

"The Twin Towers, about six blocks east of you. There's a small café in the lobby. Somebody will leave a package for you. Also, get rid of this earpiece." The Voice said.

A horrifying thought entered Jin's head. Did The Voice want him to place a bomb there? Having the same name as the infamous building destroyed in 9/11, the Towers were twenty floors filled with luxury apartments. But still, Jin couldn't ignore the symbolism.

"God help me." Jin whispered to himself as he left the pub.

10:04:37 – Stanson walked out onto the floor inside CTU. He glanced over at Sarah, who was still in her office, working on something. He suspected her of doing something unauthorized, but he didn't know what.

Tonight was definitely intense. It had been awhile since he's had so much activity going on at the same time.

He made his way over to Nicole's desk.

"You got the chopper up on satellite?" Stanson asked.

"Sure do. This thing is heading north pretty fast." Nicole said.

"Where is it?"

"It's heading towards an open field just south of Route 6 between the Grand Prairie mall and Allen Rd." she said.

Stanson picked up the phone and punched in Alex's number.

"Yeah?" Alex said.

"Where are you guys?" Stanson asked.

"We just turned onto University." Alex said.

"His chopper's landing in a field off of Route 6."

"We've noticed. I was about to call and ask if you could have a backup team meet us there." Alex said.

"You got it. Be careful."

Stanson hung up, and walked over to Sarah's office.

She was still working on the disk that Wallace had recovered, and Stanson hoped she had something to give him, no matter how much he didn't want to trust her.

"Anything on the disk yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, I've been able to uncover dossiers on everybody in here, including a few of the assassins."

"Who are they?" he asked.

"The first group is the Mabinko brothers. They are out of Africa." She said.

"I know about them. Who else do you have?"

Sarah didn't want to go to the next dossier. She had just started to decode the disk, and she hadn't had a chance to delete Max's file.

The next image popped up, and sure enough, it was Max.

"Maxwell Tiis. He's from London. His hits are known for being flashy. But he tends to get away with it." Sarah said.

"I've heard of some of his hits before. He was involved in that shootout with Berlin police a couple months ago. Tiis is reckless. This helicopter stunt could only be him." Stanson said.

"Is there anything else?" She asked.

"No. Keep working on the disk, I'll let Division know where we are." He said.

He calmly walked towards the door. She was hiding something; he knew it.

10:10:02 – The chopper beat through the night air, passing over the north end of the city and into the darkness provided by the many open fields on the outskirts.

Inside, Max was grinning like an idiot. He couldn't believe how easily he picked up Hwoarang. He heard all the stories about this kid. It was just pure chance that he survived the incident in Tokyo.

Max could tell that Hwoarang knew where Jin was. From what he remembered in the dossier, the two used to be rivals, but were now friends. It told him that a portion of their relationship was based on knowing everything about the other person. Jin would try to find out everything about Hwoarang – his habits, his routines, his tells when he lies, etc. It was the same vice versa. The whole point was to know the other so well that there would never be any surprises. It impressed Max.

The chopper began to land in an open field behind a small, supposedly abandoned building. The whole time, the chopper never once turned on its lights. Now that is was about two hundred feet off the ground, it was able to turn on its spotlight, illuminating a large yellow "X" painted into the grass.

The back door to the building burst open and three men came running out. Max hopped off the chopper and started to pull Hwoarang out when the three men approached. Two of them took Hwoarang and began to drag him back to the building. The third man stood there, knowing what he was supposed to do.

"You know where to take it?" Max asked.

"I'm to take the chopper to the drop point you told me earlier and destroy it. I will then meet back here, unless told otherwise." The man said.

"Correct. Good luck."

The man entered the helicopter and Max went into the building. Once inside, he pulled out his PDA. It still showed Hwoarang's location. He needed to deal with this, and he knew how.

The two men were still carrying the unconscious Hwoarang by the arms, waiting for Max to come in.

Max glanced at the two men.

"Restrain him." He said.

The men dropped Hwoarang, and one then slapped a pair of handcuffs onto his wrists. Max pulled out a switchblade and began to cut off Hwoarang's shirt. He removed it and started to look at his right shoulder. Rubbing his finger across the smooth skin, he felt the implant just beneath the surface.

The two men held Hwoarang down as Max began to push the knife's tip into his skin. Immediately, Hwoarang jerked awake, almost not knowing what was going on. But then the pain set in like a slap to the face, and he started to yell out.

Blood oozed out of the wound, the knife digging slightly deeper. Hwoarang continued to yell out in pain. Max squeezed the wound and the implant popped out. He then withdrew the knife.

"What do you want with me?" Hwoarang asked.

"You'll find out soon enough. Take him downstairs." Max said, talking to Hwoarang and then his two cohorts.

The building was in was dimly lit and looked like it was in the middle of a renovation. The back door was part of a hallway that let to outlying rooms and the front foyer of the building. This was supposed to be an office building, but it was really a cover. Downstairs was the base of operations. There was a small armory, a communications center, a staging area for about fifteen men, and an interrogation/holding area.

All in all, it wasn't a bad setup for such a small job. Max had a second in command that ran the base while he was gone, and he also helped coordinate things in terms of the locations of the targets. For example, if Max was busy taking down one target, he would keep track of the other targets on the list (with the exception of Jin). Max felt it was necessary to have this base ready. He knew he couldn't fully trust Sarah. Amstel may be his client, but Max had one rule – Trust no one. He could trust the information during the job, but if there had been any major problems or the job was over, he wouldn't have any contact with her.

Max stared at the bloody tracer implant on the floor. He couldn't have anyone finding them here. He slammed his foot down on it, destroying it.

10:14:39 – "You've got to be kidding me…" Le Carre trailed off.

Alex looked over at him as they raced up on University. Le Carre was still giving his PDA a puzzled, confused look.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"I lost the signal," Le Carre said, pulling out his phone.

"What?" Alex said, shocked.

Le Carre hit the speed-dialed Stanson.

"CTU, Stanson."

"I just lost Hwoarang's signal. You got anything?" Le Carre asked.

"No, we just lost it here too. It looks like they found the tracer."

"Where's the chopper headed?" Le Carre asked.

"It's landed on a patch of land near Route 6, somewhere between the Grand Prairie Mall and Allen Rd." Stanson said.

"Where in particular?"

"We're not sure. The chopper went below radar before we could establish a landing point. I want you two to set up a field station over at Grand Prairie. I've sent a team out to you guys. It should be there within the next twenty minutes. Until then, stay put." Stanson said.

"There's got to be some other way to cover the land without having us go by foot." Le Carre said.

"We're relaying a satellite from Canada now. It should be over the area by the time the team gets to you." Stanson said.

"Ok. We'll keep in touch." Le Carre said.

He hung up.

"Where to?" Alex asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Grand Prairie Mall."

10:17:09 – Sarah saw Stanson walk out onto the floor. Technically, she was still working on the disk, and as slowly as possible.

In secret, she had been watching everything that had been going on, and she knew she wouldn't be able to keep the charade up much longer. She figured that Stanson noticed that she was acting differently, and was already watching her in some way.

She opened up an instant messaging program on her desktop. She then went into the settings and changed some things. This way, it would take longer for Stanson to figure out the fact that she wasn't communicating inter-agency, just in case he walked in on her or was actually checking her outgoing communications.

Sarah may have seemed like a complete ditz, but she really was an intelligent person. Most of her talent was seen in the planning of missions, and how she portrayed herself to others. In action, she always acted differently. This time she acted like she knew computer and internet programming in and out, and could adjust quickly to office politics. But that wasn't really her.

Stanson had her brought in to lighten his work load, even though the job was only temporary. She did some of his paperwork, and she did small, but difficult jobs when the situation called for it. She never was field trained, so she would always stay at CTU when in "Crisis Mode". She was the perfect second-in-command, and that was exactly what she wanted.

Max was good at saving his own ass, no matter the cost. This is the one reason she was always there to supply information to him. It was what she was just about to do. If Stanson was able to arrest Max, then he would give her up instantly.

But she was thinking that her cover may have been blown anyhow. She would be keeping an eye on Stanson, just in case she needed to remove him from the equation.

She put an IP address into the messaging program. It was to Max's PDA.

Stanson has a general idea of where you are. She typed.

Max replied instantly.

How?

He followed your transponder signal, idiot. He sent Winterfall and Le Carre to the mall near you. If you have Hwoarang, kill him. That's what we are paying you for.

I'm about to question him. I feel that he knows where Jin is. Kazama is good at hiding. He would be the hardest to find by morning. Max typed back.

Do what you need to do, but don't get captured. If everything goes according to plan, Stanson will be knocking your down within the hour.

I'll break Hwoarang, don't worry. You just make sure everything is set for sun-up. I don't like the fact that I'm being hired for two high risk jobs. If I'm caught at all, I'm finished.

I thought Amstel hired you for your confidence. You seem pretty worried to me. She typed.

Just make sure everything is ready. He typed before closing the connection.

10:22:46 – Max put the PDA back in his pocket before walking down the long hall towards the interrogation room towards the back of the complex.

He opened the door, and noticed Hwoarang on his knees. His hands and feet were shackled. His head hung down, and Max couldn't tell if he was just brooding or if he was actually unconscious. Two guards stood behind him, just to make sure he didn't try to escape.

The navy blue walls accented the three circular lights implanted into each of the four walls of the room. It allowed everyone to see the detail of everything and everyone in the room, while giving off as little light as possible. The only thing it didn't accent was the cement floor, which told everyone there that the flooring must not have been put in yet?

Hwoarang was groggy. The stun gun that they hit him with downtown had really gotten to him. He figured that they must have modified it so that it would give out more electricity than normal.

He continued to look at the floor. At least that didn't make his head pound.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Hwoarang asked.

Max stood there in front of him. This would be fun.

"There's something I need to know." He asked.

"Yeah, well you can go fuck yourself. I'm not telling you anything, you pompous bastard." Hwoarang said defiantly.

"You will tell me. Regardless of what I have to do to you, you'll talk." Max said.

Hwoarang looked up, his hair covering his eyes until now.

"Try me."

Max stared at him; their eyes locked in a bitter power struggle.

"Okay." Max said.

He then withdrew two tazer guns, one in each hand, and shot them at Hwoarang. The needles injected themselves into Hwoarang's bare chest and stomach, and as soon as Max pulled the trigger again, electricity poured itself into his body, sending him into serious convulsions.

He continued to shake for what was beginning to seem like an eternity. Hwoarang finally began to scream; his mind reaching the breaking point.

Max almost couldn't believe it. He had done this to numerous victims before, and nobody screamed this early. This Korean was nothing but a weakling.

Hwoarang's screams were cut short as he finally passed out and collapsed onto the floor.

One of the two bodyguards spoke up.

"What do you want us to do with him?"

Max glanced at them, his attention originally focused on Hwoarang.

"When he comes to, use the brass. If he talks, come and get me." Max said.

"And if he doesn't?" the guard asked.

"Keep trying him. But we need to be out of here by ten till. If he doesn't talk by quarter till, kill him." Max said.

10:26:19 – Stanson was sitting in his office, reading an email sent to him by Division. It had stated that they would try to send a District Director down to oversee things by about 2 A.M. He figured that they would be late, probably closer to three.

His phone rang.

"CTU, Stanson," he said.

"Hey, it's me." Tom said.

"You got something?"

"I just picked up something from a messaging program imbedded in her system." Tom said.

"Who did she send it to?" Stanson asked.

"I'm not sure…" he started.

"Did you track it?" Stanson interrupted.

"I was only about to get it down to a half-mile radius. It's in the area you sent Le Carre and Winterfall." Tom said.

"Ok. Cross-reference it with the area where we lost the chopper, and then get back to me." Stanson said.

"What about Sarah?" Tom asked.

"Don't worry. I'll deal with it."

10:28:41 – The Grand Prairie Mall was empty at this time of night. If there was anybody there, it was employees from the various businesses closing up their stores. There were a few other places still open: A Buffalo Wild Wings and a movie theatre across the street, a Steak and Shake, and an Old Chicago on the other side of the lot.

Alex didn't like being out in the open like this, just to wait for backup. They were out in the open, and with the last Mabinko on the loose looking for revenge, it didn't make him feel any better.

They were parked in the front row, directly in front of what was Dick's Sporting Goods. It was a huge store that was supposed to have everything any sportsman could want. Hell, it even had a rock climbing wall in the center of the store.

Le Carre was inside the car, trying to get the commander of the backup team on the phone, but for some reason he was having trouble getting through.

Alex was outside, keeping watch. But that was just an excuse for him to start smoking again. He was used to stress, especially with the secrets that he held. Taking in a long drag, he tried to remember when life was simple, and never so complicated that it took years to solve. It was easy to admire how innocent children were, how their smiles were so loving and caring. Simple mindedness was bliss. It made him want to shelter them all even more, knowing all the torturous formalities that this world seemed to press on everyone as if it was a slave owner, and humans were its slaves; letting them know who was in charge by making life so difficult sometimes.

Le Carre got out of the car, and started to lean on the passenger's side of the car. On the other side, Alex inhaled the last drag. He threw the butt on the pavement, expecting something to happen.

"Their commander says that they are six minutes out." Le Carre said.

"What about satellite coverage?" Alex asked.

"It's over us now. I'm going to start scanning the area so we can move in once the team gets here."

A car pulled into the lot, its headlights aimed in their direction. It gained speed, and the roar of its engine latched onto Alex's growing paranoia. He pulled his new gun, a .357 magnum with a six-inch barrel that he got out of Jin's car.

Le Carre stopped, setting the PDA on the hood. He still wasn't sure if he should pull his gun out.

The car, less than two hundred feet away, suddenly burst out a hail of gunfire from inside the car.

Alex ducked before the bullets could hit the car. The bullets hit Le Carre twice in the chest, causing him to drop like a fly onto the pavement.

The car sped past them on Le Carre's side, continuing to fire (and miss) at Le Carre through the now broken passenger side window.

Alex jumped up and returned fire, sending two magnum slugs through the rear window of the speeding vehicle. It wasn't good enough though; the vehicle sped away, heading for the other side of the mall.

He immediately ran over to Le Carre, who was busy bleeding profusely all over the place. Alex took a towel out of the backseat of the car and tried to apply pressure, the blood squirting onto his hands.

"Jesus," Alex muttered, worried.

10:33:58 – The brass knuckles made hard contact with Hwoarang's jaw, sending him the floor. It was the fourth time he had told them to "eat shit", and this was their response. He didn't think he could stall anymore, but the truth was that he really didn't know where Jin was. He had to think of something.

The room was starting to get cold. Either that, or it was the fact that he had no shirt on. His jaw killed, and if he took a couple more blows to that side of the face, he would be completely out of commission. He was getting woozy as it was, mainly from the shock therapy Max injected into him.

The guard picked up Hwoarang by pulling on his hair. He winced as he felt some of the strands being plucked out at the root. It only made his headache worse.

He was on his knees when the guard then grabbed him by the neck and slammed him up against the wall, holding him in place.

"Where's Kazama?" he asked.

The second guard came up next to him, brass knuckles in place, ready to hit him in the stomach, hard.

"I really don't know. I lost him before you grabbed me." He muttered, knowing it would work.

"Nice try," the guard said, nodding to his comrade.

The second guard hit Hwoarang in the stomach, the first guard letting go of his neck. The blow sent Hwoarang back to the floor. He felt like throwing up. He looked up, only to receive a second blow, back to the jaw.

He collapsed onto the floor. A small trickle of blood began to pour out of his mouth, the inside of which was torn to shreds. Fights had a tendency to do that. But in this case, torture would do that too.

Max walked into the room. Hwoarang barely heard him come in. He was about to pass out.

Max saw him there on the floor, and he didn't need the son of a bitch passing out on him. He darted over to him, grabbed his hair, and started shaking his head.

"You're not passing out on me. No, no, no. It's not going to be that easy." Max said.

"I told you, I don't know where he is," Hwoarang muttered, before passing out.

Max stood up in anger, pulled out his gun, and shot one of the guards directly in the face. The guard fell backwards.

"Fuck!" Max screamed.

"What now boss?" the other guard asked.

Max aimed his gun at him.

"Don't talk," Max said.

There was an eerie silence for a few moments. He stared at Hwoarang for nearly a minute before glancing back at the guard.

"When he wakes up, kill him." Max said.

"Why not just kill him now?" the guard asked.

Max started to walk out of the room.

"Just do it! I want him to know when it's coming." He said.

10:40:27 – Max continued to walk out of the room, grabbing the phone from his jacket pocket. He dialed Sarah's number, frustrated as to where this was headed.

"Yeah," she said.

"This line secure?" he asked.

"Yes, but don't call me on any agency numbers. Stanson's watching me. I may have to leave. Where are you with Hwoarang?" she asked.

"He says he doesn't know anything. Is it possible?" he asked.

"Depends on when you grabbed him. Stanson held a briefing a while ago and said that he was looking for Jin when he was captured. You may have to start looking for Kazama on your own." She said.

"Dammit," he muttered, "I'll get back to you," he said.

He hung up.

10:41:25 – Sarah set the receiver down when Stanson walked in.

"We got a problem," he said.

She was a bit stunned by his sudden entrance. Chaos tended to run in floods, and the dam was about to break, or so she thought.

"Winterfall and Le Carre made it to the rendezvous point, but they were attacked by an unknown assailant. Le Carre was critically wounded. Alex is taking him to Procter now." Stanson said.

Yep, the dam broke alright.

"How did that happen?" she asked.

"A car sped towards them and opened fire. Le Carre took two to the chest. We don't know if he'll make it." He said.

"My god…"

"What do you have on the disk?"

Once again, she was caught off guard by him. She would have to get out of here soon if he really starts to suspect something.

"I've tracked it down to an IP address that was rerouted through Tokyo, Shanghai, Berlin, Oslo, London, New York, and finally Chicago. Whoever sent this wanted this untraceable. Each time it was rerouted, the original address changed. Agency protocol." She said.

"So it was somebody inter-agency." He said.

"Without a doubt." She said.

"Ok. I'm going to update Division. Send a copy of the report over to my system." He said, walking out of her office.

He then continued over to Tom, who was busy at his desk analyzing the images that were coming off the satellite.

"Tom, what have you got on the infrared?" he asked.

"Not much. There are a couple old abandoned buildings in the area, but if Hwoarang is in any of them, it's underground where we can't always penetrate." He said.

Stanson leaned over Tom's shoulder.

"Anything on Sarah?" he whispered.

"She received a phone call on her cell. She thinks it's still scrambled," Tom said.

"It isn't is it?"

"No. I broke through that twenty minutes ago. As of right now, I own all of her systems and all forms of communication. If she steps out of line, I'll know it," He said.

"Good job. Keep me informed," Stanson said.

Stanson walked away from Tom's desk and into his office. He quickly picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Director Newman's office," a female secretary answered.

"This is Director Stanson, Peoria CTU. I need to speak with him. It's urgent." He said.

The line clicked, and after a few seconds it switched over to another line.

"Newman," a man answered.

"Sir, this Stanson over in the Peoria office."

"Yes?"

"We have a mole."

10:44:37 – Jin walked through the double doors into the main lobby of Tower One. The Twin Towers in Peoria were nothing more than offices and luxury apartments. At this time of night, it was certainly quiet. But the café off to the left was still open. That was where he was headed.

The lobby wasn't anything fancy. The color scheme was nothing more than a white tile floor and dark grey walls, something nice but nothing too extravagant.

To the right was a desk to check for any packages and such. Directly in front was a row of about eight elevators, and to the right was the café.

He walked into the café and sat down. He took in a deep breath. It felt good.

Jin was exhausted. A lot had happened tonight. He saw his bodyguard die, he realized that Ling may have been kidnapped, he had to kill a friend, and then he watched Hwoarang get captured by another assassin. Now that he was here, he had no clue what could happen. But he needed to safe his strength.

Another man walked into the building. The sound of the door opening jolted Jin to attention. He stared at the man, who seemed completely oblivious to Jin's presence. The man walked by his table and dropped a card, directly in front of Jin. The man then continued to the counter, where he proceeded to order.

Jin picked up the card, which had a rubber band around it. It held a piece of paper and a keycard together. He took out the piece of paper which said, "Head to the first elevator outside of the café, and use the keycard to access the elevator. Wait there."

He stood up, walked over to the elevator, and hit the call button. He glanced over at the man who dropped the card, who glanced at him with a serious look on his face. Was that The Voice?

The doors opened, and Jin walked in. To his left, there was a card slot under the many different numbered buttons for the designated floors. He slid the keycard in, and a green light came on immediately. The doors closed, and the elevator began to move.

10:49:02 – Hwoarang opened his eyes. His whole body ached. Not only did the old ankle injury complain, but every other place he was hit tonight made him just wish he could pass out again.

"Get up," the remaining guard said.

Hwoarang looked in the direction of the voice and noticed a body on the floor; a pool of blood surrounding the man's head. Did Max come in after he passed out? He couldn't really remember much after being thrown up against the wall.

He then heard the click of a gun's hammer. The noise caused him to wake up, and get back on his knees.

"Personally, I would have killed you earlier. But Max wanted you to see it coming," the guard said.

Hwoarang groaned. "How kind of him," he said.

Hwoarang looked up, staring down the barrel of a .44 magnum revolver. This wasn't where it was supposed to end. He knew it.

He looked back down for a second, and then jumped up. He grabbed the gun and pushed the guard back against the wall. The two struggled to gain power over the weapon, Hwoarang finally pushing the gun under the guard's chin. He then forced the trigger down, sending the bullet through the man's head. The décor was now officially ruined. They might as well start renovating again.

Blood had splashed against Hwoarang's face. The body slumped to the floor, half of his face blown off.

"Shit!" he cursed.

The gun rested in his hand. His mind drifted off for a moment, the adrenaline leaving his system. He then shifted himself to start looking through the guard's pockets for the keys to the handcuffs.

He fumbled with the locks, and finally he was free. Payback time. He opened the cylinder on the revolver and glanced at the bullets inside. Five shots left, and no bullets. This was going to be fun.

10:53:19 – The car was burning pavement down Glen, finally fish-tailing onto Sheridan towards the hospital. Alex was on a pure adrenaline rush.

Next to him, Le Carre had lost consciousness. Alex had no clue if he was still alive. He probably could have bled to death already.

Alex flew into the driveway of the emergency room entrance. He got out the car, two nurses rushing out of the door to see what was coming in.

Alex opened the door and pulled Le Carre out of the car. The man looked very pale, and just the sight of him caused the two nurses to spring into action.

He carried him inside, where a doctor was already waiting with a stretcher. As soon as Alex set him down on it, the medical staff wheeled him off. Now there was nothing he could do. Gavin Le Carre was in their hands.

Outside, there was somebody who saw all of this happen. He was sitting in a new car with a new windshield and new passenger window.

"I've got you now," Zesiro Mabinko spoke aloud.

10:55:33 – Max was sitting in his darkened office, watching an episode of Japanese anime. He was wrapping up the latest fan sub of "Bleach" when another guard walked in.

"Sir!" the guard yelled out.

It took Max off guard.

"What the hell?" he said.

"We've got a major problem," the guard said.

"What?"

"Hwoarang's on the loose," he said.

"What?" Max said, shocked.

"He's already killed three more of our men," the guard said.

Max stood up and grabbed the HK7 that he set on his desk and walked into the hall.

"You have to get out of here," the guard said.

There was a door next to his office that was locked by a keypad. This was his emergency exit. It led to a small corridor that led him back outside and straight into the back end of the Super Wal-Mart nearby. This was just incase the place was raided. He at least could attempt to blend in with the crowd there. But there wasn't going to be a crowd there at this time of night, even if the place wasn't always open 24/7.

The guard started to push him out of the way just as Hwoarang appeared at the far end of the hall they were in. He fired, hitting the guard in the neck.

Max quickly punched in the code for the door and went through. Hwoarang ran after him, determined to catch him.

"Max!" he screamed.

10:59:57…

10:59:58…

10:59:59…

11:00:00…


	6. 11:00 pm 12:00 am

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

The following takes place between 11:00 pm and 12:00 am.

Events occur in real time.

11:00:00 – The doors inside the ER burst open, a gurney being rushed. Around it were people who everyone really wished they could be: the people who were rushed, but never really panicked in a life or death emergency.

On the gurney: Gavin Le Carre. Around him were two nurses, one doctor, and Alex Winterfall, who brought up the rear.

Alex was lost. In the field, he wasn't one to be messed with, but when faced with something like this, he was as baffled as the next person.

The doctor running the cart down the hall noticed a nurse looking out of the room that was being prepped for Le Carre.

"Get the crash cart, sat! He's going into V-Fib!" he yelled out.

The last nurse in front of Alex stopped him as the gurney was rolled into the room. Alex knew what this was. This was the point where no matter who he was or what he could do, he couldn't go any further due to the simple fact that he didn't have a medical license.

"I can't let you go in, Agent Winterfall." The nurse said.

"Is he going to live?" Alex asked.

"We doing the best we can. We'll let you know as soon as we do." The nurse said, rushing into the room.

Alex leaned up against the wall and slid down until he hit the floor, an urgent helplessness cascading over him. For the first time this evening, he didn't know what to do.

11:03:18 – Hwoarang was enraged. He's wasn't turning into a devil, which he felt was surprising.

He was rushing though a wide-open area of land behind a building he couldn't tell exactly which it was. Max was ahead of him. The slimy bastard was actually a good runner. Hwoarang was too, but Max was obviously better. It didn't matter, because once he was in his line of sight, Hwoarang would shoot him. He wouldn't miss; he could all but guarantee it.

He finally rushed up onto the back driveway of the building. From the looks of the logos on the trucks, he was at a Wal-Mart. On the other side of the building, he saw a door closing. He followed and went inside.

Once he got there, he was met with a dead body on the ground. This only proved that Max was armed, which Hwoarang incorrectly assumed.

The back loading dock was empty, which was probably normal at this time of night. He quickly made note of everything in the room, trying to figure if and where Max would hide. The adrenaline was pumping into his blood so hard, that he didn't even realize that he was standing right out in the open. Anybody could hit him at this rate.

It was freezing outside, and Hwoarang still had no shirt on from when he was tortured. He tried to stop shaking, but it wasn't easy. He needed to find clothes, and hopefully fast. If he needed to, he could stay like this, and if he needed to in order to catch Max, he'd do it gladly. He'd rather be fucking cold and satisfied than cold and bloodthirsty.

He heard a scream from the next room, and ran to see what it was. He knew it was Max, but what the asshole was up to now was anyone's guess.

Rushing out the loading bay doors, Hwoarang found himself in the actual store. He noticed some of the store employees huddled down by a clothing rack. The woman made one quick look at him, as if he wasn't supposed to be there.

"Get down!" she whispered.

Max must have heard it, and Hwoarang never had much time to react. Max fired a shot in the direction of the noise, hitting the door behind Hwoarang. The bullet ricocheted and he took cover, noticing that he was thankfully in the Men's department.

"Are you crazy?" the woman asked.

"No, just clueless." He responded.

Hwoarang kept crouched and walked towards the open hall, where he spotted a display showing off a black hooded sweatshirt. He quickly put it on, and walked back to the female employee.

"Look, I'm with CTU." He said.

"What the hell is that?" she asked, completely calm.

"It's a special division within the CIA. It stands for 'Counter Terrorist Unit'." He said.

Hwoarang was completely surprised by this woman's lack of surprise, shock, horror, or even fear. She acted like this was all completely routine.

"You going to pay for that?" she said, nodding towards the sweatshirt.

"Yeah. My employer will cover it. First off, I need to know where your shotguns are." He said.

"Sporting Goods. But you need the key to open the case!" she yelled out as Hwoarang ran off.

11:06:59 – Stanson sat in his office, watching Sarah walk over to a computer on the main floor.

He should pull her out immediately. Normally, he would confront her, arrest her, and then question her. But there was a question of whom she was working for and if she knew that he was on to her.

There were plenty of ways to escape the CTU hub, and if she got outside the building, there was no telling where she would go.

At least this way, if he played it like he had no clue about her true allegiances, he could hit her when she least expected it.

She got up from the computer, and began to walk back to her office. Stanson continued to glare at her, and she noticed it. Not only that, but she was going to act on it. She diverted from her office and walked directly into his.

"What is your problem?" She accused.

"What?" he asked.

"You have been giving me the evil eye for nearly the past hour, and you haven't even said anything. What the hell is going on?" she asked.

"You've been contacting your boyfriend, your girlfriend, whoever. Regardless, you're doing off-book with our lines during an active protocol. I could have you arrested right now if I felt so inclined." He said.

She scoffed at his reply. She was stunned.

"On what charge?"

"Interfering with a federal investigation. You used government resources on government time for something non-government related. District really doesn't care for it, and in fact, they called me about it." He said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"We were under a watch list. We were being reviewed. And they want me to arrest you immediately. But I see that you are a valuable resource. I could use the extra manpower as well as expertise." He said.

"Am I going to be arrested?"

"I'm going to try to talk them out of it. Possibly kill any jail time, but I'm not sure about the job." He said.

"Fine. Can I get back to work?"

"Please do." He said.

She turned and stalked out the door. He pissed her off. Good.

In reality, he didn't know what he was doing. But she was his prey, and there was no way in hell that she was going to escape.

Plans and thoughts ran through his head, and he finally figured that if she was a mole, he was just going to flush her out. Make her think that her cover's blown. And when she tries to get out, he'll be there.

Yeah, that'll do.

11:09:18 – Hwoarang stared at the glass case that held the shotguns. It had already been broken into, the silent alarm probably alerting the proper authorities. Max would want to be long gone by then. Thankfully, Max didn't take all the guns.

Grabbing one of the loose shotguns from the broken case, he ran into the next aisle and grabbed a box of shells: 12 gauge. He was going to hurt the son of a bitch by taking his leg off, or an arm. It didn't matter. Hwoarang knew he wouldn't miss.

"Come on out of there!" a voice called out.

Hwoarang peered through the holes in the shelving. It was a security guard, and his pistol was drawn. Hwoarang crept to the end of the aisle, shotgun ready.

The guard walked right into it. Hwoarang hit him in the face with the butt of the gun, knocking him out cold. The gun dropped to the floor, which Hwoarang took.

Running off, he thought about where Max would be headed. He would more than likely head for the front door. Hwoarang darted off in that direction, and immediately saw his target, still loading the shotgun in his hands.

Hwoarang was ready for him, and fired a blast in his direction. It missed, hitting a coffee pot from the appliance department. It blew into a million pieces along the floor.

Max ducked into the nearest aisle for cover.

"You're not going to get me. I better than you." Max said.

"That bullshit won't deter me, you fuck. You're a dead man." Hwoarang said, firing another shot towards the aisle.

He glanced down an aisle, thinking about a way to get to Max without committing suicide.

11:13:22 – The basement was a parking garage. Jin sat against one the support pillars, taking a break.

He hadn't had a chance to collect himself until now. It was obvious that this "voice" wasn't going to let him go easily.

The voice told him to wait here for further instructions. It had been about ten minutes since he got down here.

Jin glanced at the very few cars that were down here. He wondered who they actually belonged to – guests, residents, or employees of some of the businesses in the building. He wasn't sure.

Ling was dead. He had a good feeling that she was probably killed hours ago. Why her? Was it to get to him? And even then, what was the fucking point? There were so many questions he had, with no answers to accompany them. This was a nightmare.

He loved her. In the past few months since the Tokyo incident, he had grown close to her. She made several trips into town to see him, and two months ago, she confessed her love for him.

They had been a couple since that night. There was only one thing that always bugged him, and that was Hwoarang. Jin realized that he had been in love with her not more than a year ago, if not earlier. It was hard, mainly because Ling didn't want Hwoarang knowing that she was here or that she was now seeing somebody new.

It wouldn't be easy to hide to anymore. After tonight, he was going to tell Hwoarang. That is, if they both survive.

Jin heard tires squeal in the distance. A car was coming down to his position. It circled around the corner, its headlights shining directly into Jin's eyes.

He stood up as the car stopped. He held his arm up in front of his face, trying to block out the light in order to get a glimpse of the driver.

The rear passenger door opened and an orange haired Korean man got out. It was Hwoarang. Only his taste in clothes had greatly improved.

He was wearing Armani by the looks of it. A black suit, three-button jacket, and a crimson red silk shirt – it all reflected his cockiness. It was Hwoarang, no doubt about it.

But as soon as he came into better light, Jin could tell that it was far from being the friend he knew. The man had a scar coming down his right cheek. It was faint, but noticeable. The other noticeable thing about him from Hwoarang was how much darker this guys skin tone was. In fact, the more he thought about it, he wondered why he mistook the guy for Hwoarang in the first place. Maybe he was worried about him.

"Who are you?" Jin asked.

"My name is Ko Yon-ha. I am 'The Voice'." He said.

His face looked like he had seen a good deal of action before. The scar was just the obvious sign, the rest of his face looked slightly weathered, and it made Jin wonder how old he really was. He had to be in his mid to late twenties. Other than his hair and clothes, everything about him was average.

"Where's Ling?" Jin asked.

Yon-ha chuckled. Jin was slightly amusing.

"She's safe. You just might get to see her soon. That is, if you do this one last job for me." He said.

Jin figured that there would be some catch. Ko must have thought that he wasn't going to follow his orders without some incentive. In this case, actually seeing the bastard would provide it.

"What is it?" Jin asked.

Ko pulled out a shotgun from the backseat and walked over to Jin.

"There's a man here. I want you to kill him, and grab the hard drive out of his computer. Do that, and she's yours." Ko said, tossing Jin the shotgun.

"You want me to kill him with this? Isn't that a little public?" Jin asked.

"You really have no choice, do you? Now why don't you hand me that briefcase with my bombs in it?"

Jin handed him the briefcase, which was still in his hand. He almost forgot it was there. In fact, his grip on it was so tight his knuckles were white.

Ko started to turn around towards the car.

"The man is up on the fourteenth floor, apartment C," he said.

"How will I recognize him?" Jin asked.

"Let's just say he has a very unique personality. His reaction to the weapon will give it away." Ko said.

Jin cocked the shotgun and aimed it at Ko.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

Ko stopped dead in his tracks. Jin could tell he was smiling. The bastard…

"You better put that down before somebody gets hurt." Ko said.

"Really?" Jin questioned.

"Yeah. Besides, if you really were going to kill me, you would have done it already." Ko said, continuing towards the car.

11:18:39 – A shot rang out in the store, blowing a stuffed animal off the shelf, sending the feathers and stuffed cotton everywhere. Hwoarang ducked into the next aisle. The tide was turning against him. He was running out of ammo for the shotgun, and he was trying to save the pistol for emergencies.

He reached into his pocket for more shells, his fingers wrapping around the last two.

"Damn," he muttered.

He loaded the shells into the gun and pumped it. These shots had to count.

Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on any nearby sounds. This enabled him to hear the footsteps from behind the shelf. Max knew where he was.

Quietly, he lay on the floor and pointed the shotgun at the shelving unit. The blast would be close enough to go through the unit and hit anything on the other side.

Hwoarang heard the person on the other side stop, and that was his chance. To make sure it was Max, he coughed. Two shots came through the shelves and Hwoarang fired. The shot went right through and hit Max in the side.

Max fell to the ground, but only temporarily. Hwoarang had immediately jumped to his feet and darted to the other side, only to see an empty aisle. He raced out to the main aisle and saw Max running off, holding his side. Blood seeped through his white dress shirt, and through his jacket. Hwoarang had hit him hard.

Max was at the front entrance. A guard stood there, waiting to intercept him. Max open fired and hit the guard in the face, killing him instantly. He looked back and saw Hwoarang aiming at him with the shotgun. He ducked through the door, the shot blasting out the glass above him.

"Dammit!" Hwoarang cursed, throwing the shotgun to ground. He pulled out the pistol and ran towards the door.

Max continued outside and saw a car pulling up. He fired two shots through the windshield and killed the driver, a middle-aged man. He walked over to the driver-side door and pulled the dead man out, leaving his body on the pavement. He got in and slammed on the accelerator.

Hwoarang came out just as he drove off, and he fired at the car, blowing out a backseat window. He was gone.

He turned around to see another car pulling up. Hwoarang aimed his gun at the driver.

"Get out of the car!" he yelled.

The driver, a teenage girl, was scared stiff. She didn't move.

Hwoarang fired one shot into the air, and then moved towards the car.

"Get out!" he yelled again.

The girl snapped into action and bolted out of the car, letting Hwoarang in.

He hit the pedal, burning rubber as it left the parking lot. There was no way he was going to let that son of a bitch off that easily.

11:22:57 – Alex sat in the hallway outside of the operating room. It all happened so fast. Le Carre got shot, and then he raced here. He didn't even know how he did it.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. Today was going to be a long day.

Alex looked up and scanned the hall. Various doctors and nurses passed by in the distance, a black man in a black suit casually walking past a doctor.

It took a second for it to register, and when it did, it caused him to jump off the couch.

He immediately pulled out his cell phone and dialed Stanson's number.

"Alex?" Stanson said.

"I'm at Proctor. Le Carre's in surgery, and Mabinko just showed up here." Alex said.

"Look, I'm completely tapped out. I've got a district manager coming here from Chicago, but it'll probably be a couple hours." Stanson said.

"What the hell am I supposed to do? I'm only one agent." Alex said.

"I'm going to call hospital security. We only need to keep him from Le Carre. We can apprehend him later as long as we follow him." Stanson said.

"Fine. I'll keep in touch."

Alex placed his phone in his pocket, glanced down the hall, and then back at the operating room doors. He just hoped that Mabinko would never find this room.

He ran off down the hall, looking for the tall black man.

11:25:10 – The glass elevator showed the city in all it's decadence and visual brilliance. The city had an orange glow, mainly due to the sulfur colored lights that the city persistently demanded.

For example, Main St. came all the way from West Peoria, and headed east before turning south, which lead down a hill into the downtown district. They revamped the streets just before the hill a couple months ago and added room to put streetlights on the sidewalk. They were spaced about fifty feet apart for almost a whole mile. While bright white lights would be absolutely amazing to anybody with a brain, the city decided on reddish brown sulfur, which made the section of the city look like the ghetto that it actually was.

Jin waited for the elevator to stop at the fourteenth floor, wondering how he was going to do this. He didn't even want to fathom the possibility of somebody calling this particular elevator. That was mainly because Jin was holding a pump-action shotgun.

The elevator stopped at his floor, and he got out. Jin ran down the hall to the designated apartment and immediately kicked the door open. He aimed the shotgun almost too late. Had anybody actually been waiting for him, he'd be dead already. But there was nobody there.

The apartment opened up to the living room first. On the left side was an area where groups of people could sit and watch the large plasma TV that sat on the cream colored wall.

Jin glanced at the surroundings of the room. This guy probably wasn't as bad as Jin originally though. The room looked fairly calm; something that could probably belong to anybody.

He continued through the house into the kitchen, which had the same approach as the living room. Calm, subtle, soft colors, expensive products filled the room. The stainless steel appliances, the cream colored marble floor, the granite countertop, it all showed that this guy had money.

Jin continued into the bedroom, which must have also been his study. There was a desk in the left hand corner, just overflowing with papers, and a desktop computer in the center of it all. A bed was on the right, with a nightstand and a reading lamp. The glass wall let some of the light from the city inside, but it wasn't enough to see.

Jin hit the light switch, letting a ceiling lamp come on. He walked over to the desk and glanced at the papers. Various articles on Bob Dylan and school papers covered the top of the pile, and Jin wasn't about to leaf through the rest of it. He glanced at the plaque on the wall.

It showed excellence in journalism for a specific article that Jin had never heard of. The recipient was a Michael Foster. The name did sound a little familiar. He didn't know where from, but it rung a bell.

He continued to look around the room. Foster must not have been home. But he had to have been. Ko wouldn't have said he was here if he really wasn't. Or would he? Jin didn't know anymore. He hated guessing games, and this whole charade was starting to get on his nerves.

There was one thing he could grab while he was here – the hard drive. Ko said he needed it. Jin walked back over to the computer and opened up the tower. He unplugged the hard drive and then took a quick glance around the apartment, making sure Foster couldn't really hide, then left.

11:32:18 – Hwoarang fishtailed onto the Pioneer Parkway off of Allen, which is where the Wal-Mart was located.

Pioneer Parkway was littered primarily with car dealerships, banks, some restaurants, and department stores.

Hwoarang was a little under a block behind Max, who was trying to speed away. The economy car that Max was driving wasn't enough to outrun Hwoarang's vehicle, which he could tell had a V8 engine in it. It was one of the new Mustang's, and based on the engine size, he assumed it was the GT model.

Gunfire erupted from Max's car, and suddenly began to impact upon the windshield of Hwoarang's car. The bullets ricocheted, crashing against the glass, leaving just a white spot of meshed glass in its place.

Hwoarang took the pistol and rolled down the window. Trying to keep his arm steady was tricky. Thankfully, there was no traffic on this street at this time of night, so he didn't have to worry about the road as much.

He fired off two shots before noticing a car starting to rush through a red light. He got back inside and quickly swerved left, avoiding the car completely. Now on the opposite side of the street, he quickly glanced over at Max's car, and noticed that he was turning down Knoxville. Hwoarang looked ahead, and noticed a wave of oncoming cars turning onto the road in front of him.

"No, no, no. Crap!" Hwoarang exclaimed.

He then noticed that the divider cut off, leaving the road wide open. He swerved into the correct side of the road and then sped up, turning onto Knoxville. He noticed Max's car quickly turning into a subdivision.

It wasn't what he wanted him to do. Hwoarang really didn't need to turn this into a huge gunfight. This was mainly because Max was the only lead at this point. Killing him just made things worse. He would need to back off.

"Just my luck." He said, turning into the subdivision.

11:36:22 – Alex walked through the halls of the hospital, finally stepping into the security office. They knew he was here, and told him that he could take command of their team.

The office had one large wall of close to fifty different monitors, all showing different sections of the hospital. The room itself was dark, everything illuminated from the soft white glow of the monitors.

A security guard sat at the desk in front of the monitors. He looked to be about twenty, and half asleep.

"What have you got?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. We picked up a guy fitting your description in zone eight, on the other side of the building. " The guard said.

"He must have spotted me outside of the operating room." Alex said.

"Well, he's been over there for about the past ten minutes. Is it possible he knows that there's no way to get to your guy?" the guard asked.

"First off, there will never be an absolute way to not get to my guy; and second, he's not going to leave. He's getting paid to kill the both of us." Alex said.

"Well, there are three guards in the room that's being prepped. Le Carre's out of surgery now. He should be safe."

"Mabinko's a professional assassin, until he's dead, nobody's safe." Alex said.

11:40:00 – "So what have you got?" Stanson asked over the phone.

The District Director was on the line. He called about two minutes ago.

"We have a warrant. After reviewing your logs of where she's been, it seems like she should be brought in for questioning. What other evidence do you have?" the director asked.

"I checked video logs throughout the city. We have live feeds of her driving into a parking garage, where she met with a man named Max Tiis. We recovered a dossier of him off of a disk recovered by the late Albert Wallace." Stanson said.

"Are you sure they were meeting each other there, and he wasn't forcing her to do something irrational?"

"No. She was waiting for him. By the look on her face from the feed, it looked like she was in complete control of herself. In my personal opinion, it almost looked like she was obsessed with him for a second." Stanson said.

"Hmm… This is very disconcerting. I have the warrant here. Apprehend her, and then start questioning her. My associate should be there within the next hour or two." The director said.

"Good. Everything will be ready when he arrives." Stanson said, hanging up the phone.

11:42:39 – Sarah had a gift that all spies should have: She could read lips.

Through the glass walls the covered the front of the offices in CTU, she could see Stanson talking to somebody on the phone. She had been made, and she needed to get out. Stanson had left his office, probably not for very long, and this was her chance.

She packed up her laptop in her messenger bag, secured the small Walther PPK under her sport coat and walked out of her office. The techs on the floor didn't pay any attention to her. Good. She was clear.

She headed for the elevator. Once inside she quickly hit the button for the first floor of the old Sears building where CTU was located. The elevator began to rise, and then stopped. The cracked paint of the old brown elevator doors began to slide away, revealing the dusty, dark, barren department store behind it. She walked out, and then stopped.

After being satisfied with her surroundings, she continued forward, but then stopped again when she heard the click of the hammer, and felt the tip of the barrel against the left side of her temple.

"Going somewhere?" Stanson asked.

"What the hell are you doing? Is there any reason to be doing this?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, in fact, there is. You're a traitor, Sarah. Max is going down, right along with you."

"You believe what you want to believe. I haven't done anything, and I'm not talking to anyone until I see my lawyer." Sarah said with a grin.

"No. No lawyers. This is off the books. Now let's go back downstairs." Stanson said.

Sarah then swung her left arm out, trying to nail Stanson in the face. Stanson though, reacted quickly, grabbed her arm, and used pistol-whipped her in the face. She fell to the floor. Stanson straddled her, her face on the floor. He moved up closer to her ear, pulling out his handcuffs.

"Put your hands behind your back." He demanded.

11:47:56 – The headlights of the oncoming car were blinding. Hwoarang swerved out of the way, and immediately fishtailed the car off of Knoxville and onto another side street.

He had chased Max out of the subdivision and back onto the main roads. This time, they were on Northmoor, heading in the direction of two big high schools – Richwoods and Notre Dame. The two schools couldn't be anymore different. Richwoods was a public school, was Notre Dame was very much private, as well as Roman Catholic.

The cars continued to speed, giving no regard to the red light as Hwoarang noticed Max taking a sharp turn onto Sheridan, heading towards Notre Dame.

Hwoarang followed, barely missing a car that would have clipped him and sent him into the row of cars waiting for their green light.

Max had gunned his small engine, for he was a ways ahead now. Hwoarang knew his cars though, and had saved the one little button on the steering wheel marked "Burn, baby, burn!" for the right moment.

This was the moment. He hit the button, sending the nitrous into the engine, giving it just the right kick to blast the car into the stratosphere. It flew down the street, catching up to Max's position in about seven seconds. To Hwoarang, nothing like a quick rush of G-Forces could be more beautiful.

Max was going down a short hill, an intersection coming up. The light was red.

Hwoarang rolled down the window, determined to shoot out one of the tires. He needed to keep Max alive, and this was the only plausible way to stop him.

He fired the whole clip, one of the bullets finally puncturing one of the back tires. The car started loose control. Max had hit on his brakes, but the car wouldn't stop.

"Yes!" Hwoarang called out.

The car started to go through the intersection, stopping midway. At the same time, Hwoarang noticed a large Mack truck coming down the road, slamming on its brakes as it crossed the centerline of the intersection.

"No!" Hwoarang screamed.

The truck hit Max's driver side with a brutal crunch, sending the car rolling over, only to get impacted upon once again by the truck as it tried to stop.

Hwoarang stopped his car short of the intersection, and jumped out of the vehicle, running over to the mess of crushed metal as it suddenly exploded before his eyes.

The realization of what happened finally hit him, and his knees suddenly gave out. He dropped to the ground and stared at the burning wreckage.

11:53:46 – Alex began walking down the corridor of the east wing of the hospital. He was ready with about twenty other security guards to converge on Mabinko's position.

The downside to this was the fact that he had taken more guards off of Le Carre's security detail. Since they knew Mabinko's position, they could say that Le Carre would be safe.

"We're converging on the bathroom. How long did you say he was in there?" Alex asked over his radio.

Alex was hooked up to the guard in the monitoring room. He had been watching the feeds of the cameras.

"He's been in there five minutes. But there is a problem." The guard said.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"The video has a time delay of about five seconds. I forgot that it was installed earlier this morning. Beforehand, there never was a camera there."

"Dammit! Why didn't you tell me about this before?" Alex cursed.

He nodded to the team in front of him.

"We're a go!" he shouted, kicking down the door to the bathroom.

The room had a small sink, one stall, and one urinal. Alex entered, noticing that nobody was present, except for the stall. He kicked it down, and there was nobody there.

"Son of a bitch!" Alex yelled.

He immediately ran out of the bathroom, heading for Le Carre's room. He just hoped he wasn't too late.

He didn't want to think of what could happen if Mabinko had gotten there.

He crossed into the west wing, bolting down the hall like a bat out of hell. He finally got to the room and burst through the door.

Le Carre was covered in blood, his throat slit. The heart rate monitor was calling out the one low tone telling everyone that he was dead.

Alex noticed the window on the other side of the room was open, a breeze coming in, knocking the vertical blinds about.

11:59:57…

11:59:58…

11:59:59…

12:00:00…


	7. 12:00 am 1:00 am

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

The following takes place between 12:00 am and 1:00 am.

Events occur in real time.

12:00:00 – The elevator doors open, and out came Sarah after a blunt shove from Stanson. They were back on the CTU floor. The three techs, each at their stations, all looked up at Sarah in surprise and disbelief.

Sarah looked on with a smug smile on her face, stopping for a second to show her true form as a duplicitous bitch. Stanson gave a hard tug, pulling her along.

They walked down a hall next to her old office, and Stanson opened a door to a room she would admit she had never been in.

The lights were off, and Stanson threw her right in. He followed and hit the light switch next to the door.

The room was an interrogation room. In the center of the room were a metal table and three chairs. The light overhead provided plenty of light, and made the place feel open, watched, and uncomfortable.

Stanson shut the door and pushed her in the direction of the table.

"Sit down," he said.

His cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket. He glanced at the ID and then pointed his finger at her.

"Don't you fucking move."

He left the room and answered the phone.

"CTU, Stanson." He said.

"It's me." Hwoarang said.

"Are you ok?" Stanson asked.

"I'm fine. Max is dead. There was an accident, his car got hit by a semi, and it's just a huge mess here." Hwoarang said.

"Damn." Stanson said with a sigh.

"Where does this leave us?" Hwoarang asked.

"We had a mole here at CTU. Other than that we have nothing." Stanson said.

Stanson was worried. Other than Sarah, they had hit a dead end. In fact, he didn't even know about Hwoarang's little skirmish with Max.

Finally, just when he really didn't know what to say, Stanson's other line cut in.

"Listen, I'm sending a team out there. I'm guessing the police have arrived?"

"Yeah."

"I'll talk to them and tell them to bring you back here to CTU. We can recover from here."

He clicked over.

"Stanson."

"We've got a problem." Alex said.

"Tell me about it." He said sarcastically.

"Le Carre's dead." Alex said.

The words stopped Stanson where he stood. He almost didn't believe it at first. Then it hit him. Stanson leaned up against the wall and slid down to the floor. He felt like crying, but the emotion never rose above a whisper. The shock was still there, and the sorrow hadn't arrived yet.

"You there?" Alex asked.

"How did he die?" Stanson asked.

"Mabinko got to him. He laid out a distraction, plus with the lack of experienced men here…"

"I see. Listen, Hwoarang's ok. He coming back to CTU, as should you." Stanson said.

"What do you mean? I should be here searching the grounds for Mabinko." Alex said.

"He's long gone by now. You'd never find him on the grounds. We'd be lucky if he's town after a couple more hours." Stanson said.

"Fine. I'll come back. What should I do about the body?"

"Leave it for the locals. Just get back here."

"I'm on my way." Alex said, deterred.

Stanson hung up. His legs propped up; he rested his arms on his knees, with the phone still resting in one hand. He let his head hang down momentarily before looking up at the white wall in front of him.

He then yelled out, and threw the phone against the wall, causing it to break into about seven different pieces and scatter across the hall.

12:05:16 – Alex was in a bit surprised, as well as worried.

He carried his gun out in the open as he walked through the emergency room doors of the hospital. With Mabinko on the loose, he couldn't be too careful.

The gun was only something to use. If disarmed, he was plenty able to take care of himself in hand-to-hand combat. He continued towards the car, and got in. He checked all around the car for possible bombs, and finally was satisfied. He started the car and drove off towards CTU.

He was a man of many talents, but had a distinct ability to also creep behind everyone. It was only about five years ago before anyone had actually taken notice to him. Before, he was nothing but a starting agent in the FBI. He was involved with a case that involved a serial killer in northern Montana.

One night during a basic stakeout, the suspect noticed him and the rest of his team, and without raising suspicion killed his whole team minus Alex and the only other female agent. He was severely injured, having been stabbed six times. But the other agent had it worse. Her throat was slit, as well as having been shot twice. Alex took him down with his backup service revolver.

He remembered the other agent, Vicki. She was a very surprising person. She was only 22, and was a highly regarded criminal psychologist, with a Master's degree to boot. Not only was she young, fucking brilliant, but she was stunning as well. If she didn't choose such a technical career, she could have been a model.

Now, she was struggling to be more than a vegetable. The gunshot wounds and the severe cut on her neck had left her brain damaged, and her future with the agency was gone. Last time he checked, she was at her parent's home in upstate New York.

Alex dismissed the thought and took out his cell phone. The number he dialed wasn't kept in memory. If somebody had gotten a hold of that number, there would be hell to pay.

The line rang as he got in his car, slowly putting his gun away at the same time. The line on the other end clicked. Someone picked up.

"Verify." A female voice said.

"Bravo, echo, one, one." Alex said.

"Where have you been? Urahara's furious that you didn't check in." she said.

The woman was Samantha Montague; Sam for short. The man she was referring to was their boss Urahara Komaru. He ran their unit, which was one that was specially funded by the NSA.

To put a finer point to it, it was a black ops unit. When there was shit that needed to get done, and nobody wanted to do it, it got handed to them.

Now one may ask, what is a Japanese man doing heading up and American unit? It's a good question, with a good answer. He was born and named in Japan, but was then raised in the States. He was about forty years old, and was very cranky sometimes. Alex could understand to a certain extent; the man drank enough coffee to keep the dead awake.

The CIA thought it would be a good idea to have a foreign operative run a unit in the US. They would watch the unit closely enough to make sure nothing was leaked, and so far as expected, nothing had.

The unit overall dealt with different cases such as witnesses and targets coming into Peoria. Basically, the unit was used so far as assassinations and ways to follow foreign nationals as they made their way through the country. After 9/11, members of the Bin Laden family had been flown out of the States. Their unit had been responsible for getting two of them to O'Hare and out of the country. It was one of their first missions.

Alex sighed.

"Have you heard anything?" Alex asked.

"Only what's been released thought various channels. Something about a couple of agents being killed while watching Jin Kazama. But that's about it."

"Ok. It seems like CTU might be going into lockdown soon. What you don't know is: There's a group of assassins targeting thee survivors of the Combot incident in Tokyo last year. So far, here's the main casualties: Albert Wallace and Gavin Le Carre." Alex said.

"Is this coordinated?" Samantha asked.

"It's got to be. I'd be putting my money on Amstel. He's the only one alive who could want revenge for what happened last year." Alex said.

"Hold on, I've got Urahara here." She said.

Alex heard a click over the line. He swallowed the lump in his throat. Urahara wasn't one for slip-ups, even if there was due cause for it.

"What the hell is going on? Why didn't you check in?" he said.

"I've been doing my job, sir. There seems to be a coordinated plan going down to try to silence everyone involved with the incident in Tokyo last year. So far we do have two dead, but Hwoarang and Jin are fine so far." Alex said.

"I don't care if a nuclear bomb is about to go off, call in and tell us what's happening. We can at least help that way." Urahara said.

"Yes, sir." Alex said.

"Alex, you said that CTU might be going into lockdown. What did you mean by that?" Samantha said.

"Michael Stanson, Director of Peoria CTU, arrested a mole about fifteen minutes ago. He hasn't had a chance to break her yet. But Hwoarang was captured a few hours ago, he escaped and was trying to chase down his captor, but he wasn't able to get anything out of him before the captor was killed." Alex said.

"Do you need an exit plan?" Urahara asked.

"No. If Stanson is somehow compromised, I'll move back over there. But for now, I'm fine. I'll keep you posted." Alex said.

Alex hung up the phone and kept driving.

12:10:40 – Jin quickly walked through the automatic sliding doors of Tower 1 of the Twin Towers Plaza. A blast of warm air hit his face as he entered the middle ground between the lobby and the cold, outside air.

Jin didn't know what would happen next. That's what the whole evening had been – one surprise after another. He knew he never would get used to anything like this.

Hwoarang joked with him once about what happened in Tokyo. He said that half of it is "expecting the unexpected". He remembered the pat on the back that the drunken Korean gave him while saying, "you master that, and you'll have one hell of a killer edge over everyone else."

This wasn't over. He could feel it now. A cold wind cut through the night air, hitting his face, making it feel like it was being sliced open. He placed his hand in his pocket and felt something odd.

It was a cell phone, and it was vibrating. It was never originally there before. He took it out and answered it.

"Yes?" Jin asked.

"I see you found the phone. Good job." Ko said.

"What do you want?"

"Did you kill him?"

"He wasn't there. I checked it." Jin said.

"Fine. Meet me at Richard's. You know where it is?" Ko asked.

"You didn't go very far. But yeah, I know where it is." Jin said.

"Get over here then." Ko said, hanging up.

Jin began walking the short distance to Richard's Steakhouse. In fact, it was less than a block away from the towers.

The steakhouse bar was underground. A stairway led from street level down to the bar. Jin walked in, noticing the bartender fixing a drink for a patron who decided to sit alone at the bar. Past that another staircase that led down to a room that Jin cold see had a number of pool tables. To his right was the dining area. It was a rather small restaurant, but had a certain dark style that made the place welcome at night to people who wanted to be alone.

He could see Ko sitting in a back booth, nursing a beer, and waving to him. Jin walked over to him. He felt like decking him in the face for his "friendly" wave.

He sat down across from Ko, who took a drink out of his beer. Jin noticed he was drinking Guinness. God only knows how he could drink it. Jin preferred to stay away from the lagers.

"What is it? I've done everything you've asked, now where is she?" Jin asked.

"She's safe. Now do you have the hard drive?" Ko asked.

"Yes." Jin said.

"Hand it over. Under the table." Ko said.

Jin took the hard drive out of his pocket and held it under the table. Ko immediately grabbed it, and threw it in his jacket pocket.

"I'll call the cell phone thirty seconds after I leave. If I see you follow me, I'll kill her myself. Understand?" Ko said.

Jin nodded, and Ko got up. He dropped a five-dollar bill on the table and left. Jin sat there waiting, and after a minute had passed with no call, he knew he was duped.

He saw a payphone against the wall by the entrance. He had to call the number Stanson set-aside for him in case of dire emergencies.

He walked over to the phone and threw in some change. He dialed the number and it rang.

"CTU, Stanson." Stanson said.

"It's Jin Kazama." He said.

"Jesus. Where are you? Are you ok?" Stanson asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine now. I'm downtown. Somebody said they had Ling. I've been running around all night…" Jin began rambling.

"I know, I know. Just come in to CTU, do you know where it is?"

"No. Where?" Jin asked.

"The old Sears block. Go to the Water St. entrance, and I'll have somebody waiting for you there. Ok?" Stanson said.

"Got it." Jin said, hanging up.

12:16:59 – Hwoarang parked the car in the empty InPlay lot, feeling a little déjà vu after what happened there earlier.

He glanced across the street at the blocked off parking deck. It was fenced off, as it had been for several years. Stanson had said to push past the fence and go inside. The only problem was that Hwoarang never knew how to do that, seeing as he had never been there before.

He walked across the street, zipping up the hooded jacket he technically stole from Wal-Mart. He pushed past the fence, looking into the darkness beyond. He knew CTU was here, but where the hell was the door. He could see anything and he didn't have a flashlight.

"Hello?" he called out.

A portion of the back wall opened, a bright blinding white light poured out. Hwoarang didn't know what this was.

A person's silhouette came into the light. The light was still so bright that he couldn't tell who it was.

"Hwoarang, come on in."

Hwoarang looked again, his eyes adjusting to the light. The voice belonged to Stanson. He walked in, squinting his eyes, still trying to adjust to the light.

Stanson helped him inside; he could tell that the Korean was disoriented. As he should be, for that doorway and the light was supposed to do just that. It was a backup in case someone tried to make an assault on CTU.

"Why did you have to make the place so damn bright?" Hwoarang asked.

"It's there for security." Stanson said.

The hallway led into the lower level of the Sears building. He went over to the elevator and hit the button.

Hwoarang glanced around, seeing only the open floor. The whole area looked like everything that had been there had just disappeared. He wondered if the building was haunted.

"Doesn't this place ever creep you out?" Hwoarang asked.

The elevator doors opened. Stanson got on, and glanced at his watch. Hwoarang got on with him.

"I try not to think about it." Stanson said.

"Have you heard anything from Alex or Gavin?" Hwoarang asked.

"There's something that I should tell you. You won't like it."

Hwoarang could tell just from the general lack of emotion that something bad happened.

"What happened?" Hwoarang asked.

Stanson looked over at him and sighed.

"Gavin's dead. He was shot, and Alex took him to the hospital, where Mabinko got to him after he got out of surgery." Stanson said.

Hwoarang was in shock.

The doors opened back up and Hwoarang just got off. Stanson watched as he immediately went into the conference room next to Sarah's office and just plopped down on one of the chairs.

Stanson felt his pain.

Hwoarang began closing up inside, as the death of his one-time mentor was beginning to slowly eat away at his mind. Everything was going very badly tonight. The night had finally caught up with him.

He tried to empty his head out, and as he did, anger slowly began to replace his thoughts. Mabinko was the one who killed Le Carre. Hwoarang swore to himself then and there that he was going to make sure Mabinko was dead before dawn. It was the harshest promise he had ever made, and he sure as hell meant it.

12:21:16 – Stanson was standing on the main floor of CTU, when he heard the elevator doors open. He turned around and saw Alex. There was blood on him, and he didn't know where it came from. But then he thought about Le Carre. The connection presented itself.

Stanson walked up to him. Alex glanced over at the conference room. The wall was made of glass, so Hwoarang was very noticeable inside.

"You told him, didn't you." Alex said.

"Yeah, I did. He's taking it better than I thought." Stanson said.

"You shouldn't have told him." Alex said.

Alex started walking over to the conference room.

"Why's that?" Stanson asked.

"Because he'll want blood." Alex said.

Alex walked into the room, and shut the door. Hwoarang was silent, rocking back and forth in the swivel chair. Alex stood up against the wall.

"I'm sorry." Alex said.

"Sorry for what?" Hwoarang asked.

"If I only would have stayed at his room, he'd still be alive." Alex said.

"I doubt it. You'd both be dead, and I'd still be here, pissed off." Hwoarang said.

"You want Mabinko, don't you?" Alex said.

"What else would I want?"

"Blood."

"It's the exact same thing. I'm going to kill that son of a bitch before dawn." Hwoarang said.

"Aren't you taking it a bit too far? Before dawn?" Alex asked.

"You be surprised at how easy it is to find somebody here." Hwoarang said.

"Isn't that my line?" Alex asked.

12:23:07 – She was sweating profusely. Stanson knew how to interrogate his suspects. And in this case, his anger made him even better.

He circled the table, his back turned toward her.

"You know that if you were freed, they'd kill you in a heartbeat, right?" Stanson asked.

"Why do you care?" Sarah asked.

"Because you have something I want. You see, I know your type. You're a leech. You latch onto one thing, and then you latch onto another. In this case, if you give up your employer, you can live, only to latch onto something else someday." Stanson said.

She nodded. He made a good point.

"How do I know that you'll let me go? Or even release me into protective custody?" Sarah asked.

"I have no choice. You're not very high on the food chain to them. But to me, you're very important. Right now, I'd protect you as if you were the President." Stanson said.

"I'll have to think about it." Sarah said.

Stanson shook his head.

"No. You give me an answer now. Otherwise, I may just throw you out to the wolves. I imagine Amstel wouldn't want you out there somewhere now that you've been compromised." Stanson said.

"How do you know about Amstel?" Sarah asked.

"Who else would want Hwoarang, Jin, Le Carre, Wallace dead? He's the only one who would have a grudge on all of them." Stanson said.

"If I talk, I would want full protection. But even then, you couldn't protect me. He's got friends in high places."

"Who?"

"I don't know. Probably somebody within the agency."

"Where is Amstel right now?" Stanson asked.

"Somewhere in this region. I'm not sure. I don't know that much." Sarah said.

"Who's your handler?" Stanson asked.

"I want something first."

"What?"

"A Presidential pardon." Sarah said.

12:27:36 – Hwoarang was still in the conference room. The shock of Le Carre's death had left him, and now he was calm, but still just as angry as ever.

He sat in the chair, leaning over. His elbows rested on his knees and he began rubbing his face. This had been a long day. He wanted sleep. But seeing as the problems were still around, he figured he probably wouldn't get any tonight.

He sat back and began rubbing his chest. The same spot that Max had shot him with the tazer gun earlier was still very sore. In fact, it throbbed. He figured he should go out and ask for some aspirin.

He began to walk out of the conference room, when he ran into somebody. He never saw who it was before he started to get mad.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Watch where you're going!" he shouted.

"Hwoarang." Jin said.

Hwoarang looked at who spoke, and was stunned when he saw Jin standing in front of him. Hwoarang looked confused for a second, almost as if Jin's presence didn't register yet.

Jin was then taken aback when Hwoarang suddenly hugged him.

"Jesus, man. I'm so sorry about that." Hwoarang said, chuckling.

"It's ok. How are you doing?" Jin asked.

"I've been better actually." Hwoarang said.

"Hwoarang." Alex called out.

Hwoarang and Jin turned to see Alex walk up to them.

"What's up?" Hwoarang asked.

"Stanson wants us in the conference room. We're going to be debriefed." Alex said.

Alex continued on, and Jin turned to face Hwoarang.

"What's that mean? Are we done here?" Jin asked.

"That's what I would think. But you never know." Hwoarang asked.

The two walked into the conference room and sat down. Alex was already there, and all that was left was Stanson himself.

Hwoarang and Jin barely had time to sit down before Stanson came rushing in.

"Sit down, guys." Stanson said.

As they sat down, Stanson began. Hwoarang could tell with the stress in his voice that something had happened.

"What's up?" Alex asked.

"I wanted to debrief you guys and then get you all to secure locations. It'd be best to protect you." Stanson said.

"Why?" Hwoarang asked.

"Because William Amstel is behind this, and he's in the region. I had a feeling it was him. But it was never confirmed until now."

"Are you panicking?" Jin asked.

"In some ways, yes. But it's mainly a precaution. I do have a job to do. So, I'm going to start debriefing you here. The Regional Director is actually coming down soon. He'll probably be here in an hour or two." Stanson said.

"Fine. Let's get this started." Hwoarang said.

Stanson started pulling out some notes out of the binder he brought in with him.

"I'll start with you Jin. When did you first part with your personal guard?" Stanson asked.

"It was about quarter after seven. I was arriving home. I was going to the front door when I heard the phone ringing. I ran inside, and that was the last time I saw him alive. The caller said that they had Ling, and that the proof was at the front door. When I looked, he was dead." Jin said.

"What about the running around afterwards? Were you still in touch with the caller?"

"Yes. He ordered me to go to Grand Prairie, where he had hidden a briefcase filled with small bombs at Borders. He then ordered me down to One Technology Plaza, where I saw Le Carre. He ordered me to kill my friend there, and plant a bomb." Jin said.

Jin paused.

"Continue."

"After that, I continued to plant bombs at InPlay and Roxy's. He wanted me to plant one at Club Reign, but Hwoarang stopped me before I could finish. He then had me go to the Twin Towers, where I met him. He told me to search an apartment upstairs and kill a man up there. But nobody was there. He then met me at Richard's where he had me hand over a hard drive I collected from the apartment. Then he ran off. He never told me where she was." Jin said.

"Where do think she would go if released?" Stanson asked.

"She'd probably run back to her apartment, and then go underground, but…" he paused.

"Wait." Hwoarang said.

"What?" Stanson asked.

Hwoarang leaned forward. Something had sparked his curiosity.

"She has an apartment?" Hwoarang asked.

Jin had messed up big time. He and Ling had been seeing each other for months. Since the Tokyo incident, he had seen her multiple times.

She would just appear at his place, and they would hang out. She never mentioned Hwoarang, except for one time, when she asked him to never tell Hwoarang that she had been in town. Jin had asked why, and she never gave him a straight answer.

But the look on Hwoarang's face answered the question for him. Hwoarang still had feelings for her. And he had no clue how strong they were, but Jin didn't dare let the fact that he had slept with Ling slip. Hwoarang would probably kill him.

Jin still hadn't answered the question.

"Yes," he said nervously.

"How long has she been here?" Hwoarang asked accusingly.

Jin tried to keep from looking at Hwoarang. He was embarrassed.

"Four months." Jin said, with a long sigh.

"How long have you known?" Hwoarang asked.

There was a pause; Stanson and Alex didn't bother to butt in, there was too much tension as it was.

"The whole time." Jin said.

"You've been seeing her this long, and you never told me?"

"She asked me not to tell you." Jin said.

"That doesn't matter. I thought we were friends. You should have told me regardless of what she said." Hwoarang said.

Jin didn't respond. Stanson was about to interrupt, when Hwoarang quickly walked over to Jin.

"Tell me, did she come on to you too? Like she did to me?" Hwoarang asked.

For the first time, Jin stared him in the eye. Behind the blackness of his eye, he imagined the rage and betrayal that Hwoarang probably felt.

"Yeah. She did." Jin said.

A small tear came down from his eye. He didn't bother try wiping it away.

"Please tell me you didn't sleep with her." Hwoarang pleaded.

Jin thought about lying to him, but even then, the truth would come out eventually.

"Yes. I slept with her." Jin said.

He almost didn't have a chance to finish the sentence before Hwoarang tackled him to the floor, and began hitting him wherever he could.

Alex and Stanson raced over and began trying to pull the enraged Hwoarang off of Jin.

"You piece of shit! Goddamn you!" Hwoarang screamed.

Alex got Hwoarang into a sleeper hold, bracing his upper body from attacking Jin, and Stanson tackled him down at his mid-section, which pulled him off completely.

Alex braced his knee against Hwoarang's chest, and held onto the Korean's wrists.

Hwoarang glanced in the background as Jin got up. He had a bloody nose, which had been smeared across his face thanks to another punch to the face.

"Calm down. Can you calm down?" Alex asked.

Hwoarang glared at him. The intensity in his eyes was frightening.

"Get off me." Hwoarang growled.

"Not unless you calm down." Alex said.

Hwoarang submitted to Alex's plea, and relaxed against the floor. Alex slowly came up off of him, and helped Hwoarang up off the floor.

"Come on, let's go outside." Alex said.

Hwoarang turned and pointed at Jin.

"I hope you fucking burn, asshole. You try to talk to me again, and I'll kill you." Hwoarang said.

Hwoarang then turned around and left the room, leaving Jin and Stanson to fend for themselves.

12:38:14 – Fondulac Drive was a small street across the river from downtown. The only thing that made it stand out was the fact that it stood high above the city of East Peoria, and gave a magnificent view of downtown Peoria, and the surrounding areas.

Ko was walking down the street, having parked his car about two blocks away. The house he was looking for was totally dark. The exterior shined in the bright moonlight as well as the extra light coming from downtown Peoria.

This was Foster's house.

He pulled out a silenced pistol, and calmly walked up the driveway of the home. He walked softly, his heel landing with no noise, hoping that Foster wouldn't see him.

He was wearing all black now, and in the moonlight, he stood out. He continued on to the garage, which connected to the house. Beside the garage door was a side door.

Ko pulled out a small lock pick and jammed it into the doorknob lock. It quickly gave way, and the door clicked open.

He walked into the garage and continued on in to the house.

12:40:23 – Michael Foster stood inside his home, absolutely petrified. He just realized that there was somebody inside.

His entire house was dark. No lights. His mind was in a panic, and he tried to control his breathing.

He then remembered the gun under his bed. Quietly walking across the hardwood floor, he moved over to his bed and retrieved the small six-shot revolver. He checked to make sure that it was loaded, and then grabbed his cell phone off the nightstand.

He took a quick glance out into the hall, and then shut the door. He then started looking through the contacts list on his phone. He came across one number and then dialed it.

12:41:16 – Hwoarang sat outside Stanson's office at CTU. He hadn't really spoken since he blew up at Jin, and he certainly wasn't sorry for it either.

Alex had just got done talking to him. Hwoarang was thankful to have him for a friend.

Stanson called Alex over a moment ago, and now Hwoarang was just sitting there. Then his phone rang.

"Yeah?" Hwoarang asked.

"Is this Hwoarang Doo San?"

"Who's asking?"

"My name is Mike Foster. Listen to me, I'm in desperate need of your help." Foster said.

Hwoarang looked at Alex, and started to stand up.

"Well, the one you would want to talk to about that is my associate…" Hwoarang started.

"I can only talk to you. You're the only one I can trust."

"Why me?" Hwoarang asked.

"I was told to contact you if my life was ever in danger. And right now, it is." Foster said.

"I'm stuck at CTU, there's not much I can do."

"Well, then get to ICC as fast as you can and get into my office, room 319B. It's vital that you get the hard drive out of my computer as soon as you can." Foster said.

"What about you?" Hwoarang asked.

"Don't worry about me. Just get the hard drive." Foster said.

"I will." Hwoarang said.

Foster hung up the phone.

12:43:09 – Foster slapped the phone shut.

He had been sitting up against the door to his bedroom the whole time.

He then heard three quick clicks, and immediately realized what it was. A gun.

Three bullets drilled through the wood and into his body. A fourth went into the back of his head. Michael Foster was dead.

12:44:31 – Hwoarang went up to Alex, who stood not more than ten feet from him. This was big. The night was only starting.

"Alex." Hwoarang called.

Alex was talking with Stanson.

"Hwoarang, get over here." Stanson said.

"What's up?" Hwoarang asked.

"We've got to get you out of here." Alex said.

"I've got a problem." Hwoarang said.

"What?" Alex asked.

"I just got a call from a man named Mike Foster. He said that I was the only one he could trust, and that I need to collect the hard drive from his office at ICC."

"Well, you can take care of that when we get you out of here." Stanson said.

"You think this could be something?" Hwoarang asked.

"Maybe. But the problem here comes first. I got a hot tip from a source that the CTU Deputy District Director himself is coming down. Which wasn't supposed to happen. It was only to supposed to be a subordinate. And the other thing is that they want you detained for everything that's happened tonight." Alex said.

"You're kidding." Hwoarang said.

"No. And right now, as much as you hate him, Jin is probably going to save your ass. He's working on identifying the guy he saw at the twin towers. Once that comes in, we will have another solid lead to work." Alex said.

12:47:55 – Ko closes the side door to the garage and pulls out a phone. He dials in a number.

"It's me." Ko says.

"Is everything taken care of?" A male voice asked.

"It's getting there. Foster is dead, but I found out about a hard drive in his office at ICC. After that, we are free to continue with the assassinations." Ko said.

"Good. Get it, and then contact me." The man said.

"Yes, sir." Ko said.

Ko continued to walk down the driveway towards his car.

12:49:04 – Hwoarang entered a back room in CTU. The door was labeled "Armory and Technology".

Inside, Alex was standing at a work desk working on something.

The room was separated into two halves, the armory side on the left, and the technology side on the right.

The armory had about six different racks of weapons. They ranged from shotguns to handguns, back up to assault rifles.

The technology side was where all the little gadgets came from. But this also included surveillance equipment as well as the endless supply of cell phones that CTU seemed to have.

"What's up?" Hwoarang asked.

Alex turned around and handed him a PDA phone.

"A new phone?"

"Yeah. For when the sketch is done, I'll run it through the system and if I get a match, I'll send it to you on this." Alex said.

"How long will that be?" Hwoarang asked.

"Soon. But the director will be coming soon too. We have to go." Alex said.

Hwoarang quickly grabbed a pistol from the armory shelves as well as another clip. He then followed Alex out of the room.

Alex continued down the hall towards the main floor and the elevator, where Stanson was waiting.

Hwoarang passed by another room, catching a glance of Jin speaking to a sketch artist. Jin took a glance at Hwoarang, before the Korean finally turned away.

"So where's my exit at?" Hwoarang asked.

"We're taking you right out the front door." Alex said.

The elevator doors opened, and Stanson got in. Hwoarang followed, but Alex stayed.

"What's up? Are you coming?" Hwoarang asked.

"No. I just got the thumbs-up from the artist. I'm going to go look it up." Alex said.

"I'll see him off." Stanson said.

"Be careful." Alex said as the doors closed.

12:54:36 – Outside CTU, a black sedan came to a stop outside InPlay. Immediately, the back door opened, and a woman in her mid-sixties came out. She began walking towards the parking deck of the Sears block.

Behind her, an entourage of three men in suits followed her.

12:55:57 – On the other side of the building, Stanson quickly unlocked the back doors of the building. He pushed one open and Hwoarang bolted out.

"Hwoarang!" Stanson whispered.

Hwoarang turned around to see a set of keys coming at him. He caught them.

"The car is a block down the road next to the Gateway Building. Good luck." Stanson said.

Stanson closes the door and quickly locks it. He rushes back to the elevator and hops in. He hits the button, and the elevator makes it's descent.

The doors opened and he walked back out onto the floor. He took in a sigh of relief.

"Agent Stanson." A female voice said.

He turned to the direction of the voice, and his jaw nearly dropped.

The woman from outside walked up to him with her entourage.

"Director Glendale. What are you doing here?" Stanson asked.

"What does it look like? I'm taking over." She said.

12:57:11 – Alex stared out of the technology room and out into the hall where he saw Stanson getting confronted.

"Shit." He muttered.

He was in a computer chair, and he then wheeled himself over to the nearby computer he was working on. It was searching files for a match with the sketch that Jin helped produce.

The man had orange-red hair, like Hwoarang's. He also had a deep scar on his right cheek.

The computer beeped. It had a match. Alex hit a couple keys, and the man's dossier came up. He immediately took out his phone.

12:58:14 – Hwoarang was running away from the Sears block and towards the Gateway Building. His phone began to ring. He took it out, and continued to run.

"Yeah." He said.

"It's me, I've got a match." Alex said.

"Ok. Upload it to me."

Hwoarang noticed the car parked in front of a parking meter. He hit the button, and the lights on the car flashed. He ran over to it, and got inside.

He looked at the phone, and was immediately stunned. He never though about the name "Ko" before when Jin mentioned it.

"What the fuck?" he said.

"Who is he?" Alex asked.

"He's my arch rival. He served with me in our Army unit in Korea."

12:59:57…

12:59:58…

12:59:59…

1:00:00…

Author's Note: I wanted to thank everyone for sticking with this story, even with all the waiting between chapters.

It's been a long, busy summer for me so far. But this story is pretty much plotted out, and it's way better than Day One. So stay tuned, the next one should be up sometime soon.


	8. 1:00 am 2:00 am

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

The following takes place between 1:00 am and 2:00 am.

Events occur in real time.

1:00:00 – Stanson was stunned. It was supposed to be a Deputy Director who was to come down, not the Director herself.

He had only met her once, and it was in passing. By the look on her face, she was on headhunt.

He snapped back to attention. This was uncalled for. Sure, there was a mole in the office, but there was no reason for the District Director to come down from Chicago and take over the place.

Victoria Glendale walked in front of the pit of workers that sat just below the two main offices and the elevator to the surface. The workers just stared at her curiously, wondering what was going on. Stanson just stood there with his hands on his hips.

"You're taking over? On what basis?" Stanson asked.

Glendale turned around and glared at him.

"Incompetence. Poor judgment. You've had a mole working underneath you for the past five months, and yet you didn't notice a thing."

She was right. Sarah had been under his nose and he didn't suspect a thing.

"I'll admit it. She was. But that's still no reason to take me off of this case. There are assassins out there trying to kill people trusted to us." Stanson pleaded.

Glendale hadn't even flinched. He expression was still just as cold as it was when she walked in.

"As I said, I'm taking over. Get your things and get out or I will place you in custody. Where is Sarah?" Glendale said.

Stanson sighed, rubbed his eyes. He was out.

"Holding 2." He said.

As soon as she heard him, she walked off towards the holding room. Stanson then walked over to his office and grabbed his jacket. He put it on and looked at some of the different things he had lying on his desk. He couldn't decide whether to take them or not. In any other case, he would. But he had something up his sleeve. He took out his CTU keycard, dropped it on the desk. He then left the office, and moved towards the elevator.

Down the hall, Glendale walked into the holding room. She was a woman who was in most cases "by the book". But she had a certain edge to her that caused her to act irrationally when things around her became erratic. Most of her superiors knew that she had serious anger issues that seemed to come from nowhere sometimes, but they continued to deal with it.

At 33, Victoria Glendale didn't look a day older than 25. One could assume that she used to model but the truth was that she had been a bookworm most of her life. She studied hard, and surprisingly out of nowhere decided to join the CIA after college. It's taken her nearly ten years to get to this point.

Her most surprising aspect had to be the fact that she was a damn good shot. The type that if you were a rapidly moving target, nearly impossible to hit, and all she had was a pistol with one shot – she could hit you in between the eyes. She currently carried a SIG-Sauer P220 in her back holster. With the suit jacket she wore, it was tough to tell whether she was carrying or not.

Sarah had a look of complete shock on her face when she saw Glendale walk in.

"Director Glendale!" she exclaimed.

"What kind of deal was he making you? And what were you going to give him in return?"

Sarah was more than a bit speechless.

"Umm…." She muttered.

Glendale stared at her as tried to fumble about and collect her composure.

"Talk Sarah! What kind of deal was Stanson providing?" Glendale shouted.

"He was going to get me a pardon signed by the President!"

Glendale shook her head.

"That's not going to happen. If you're lucky you won't get treason. But to get anywhere near that, you have to talk."

"No! Stanson promised me the pardon! Where is it?" Sarah screamed.

"Stanson's been fired. His deal is no longer good, and I'm not offering anything. Talk!"

"No. Not without some sort of immunity or pardon." Sarah said as she looked down, staring at the floor.

Glendale had had enough. She pulled out her gun and shot Sarah in the leg, just above the knee. Sarah let out a scream of surprise as well as agony.

"You shot me!" she cried out.

"Yes, I did. And I will do it again and again until you give me what I want. Who are you working for?"

"I can't tell you."

Glendale put the barrel of the gun up against Sarah's right shoulder.

"I'll do it. You know I will, Sarah. Who are you working for?"

Sarah was still crying. She had stopped screaming, and now was completely sober after feeling the gun against her shoulder. She hesitated.

Glendale cocked back the hammer on the gun.

"Ok! Ok. A man named Armstrong approached me. He had me follow his colleague Ko Yon-ha. I set up multiple surveillance points to monitor him throughout the city."

"Do you know where either them might be right now?" Glendale asked.

"I don't know about Armstrong. I haven't spoken with him in months. He's wired money to several accounts in my name every ten days."

"What about Ko?"

"The surveillance points should still be accessible with some digging into the system. But I would check out the Rave Theatre on the north side of town. He was there earlier without telling me." Sarah said.

"When?" Glendale said.

"About eight o'clock tonight. He wasn't there for very long. Twenty minutes tops."

"Thank you, Sarah." Glendale said.

She then left the room. One of Glendale's men stood right outside the door. She stopped and turned to him.

"Get her to a doctor, and then take her the CTU Holding facility in Joliet." Glendale said.

"What's the charge?" the man asked.

"Treason."

1:07:34 – Michael Stanson had been removed from CTU. He was probably going to be fired. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been removed from a CTU office.

Three years earlier, he was the Special Agent in Charge of one of the few Chicago CTU field offices. It was a case involving an arms trade that was being run by an Iranian mobster who was trying to gain enough funding to stage a takeover of City Hall. It was at that point that his immediate boss from Division had taken over just to make sure things ran smoothly. The man was an idiot. Everything was at a crawl as soon as he took over. He was somebody who wanted to run the CTU offices. Even if it was a lower ranking job, the pay was much better. The only reason that was true was because of the risk involved with the job.

Long story short, the bastard got over his head, fired Stanson and half his staff, and then screwed the pooch on the mission to overtake the mobster. It was a simple mission that didn't need any hand holding from up above. Stanson later heard that the man who fired him got fired himself for screwing up the mission. The higher-up's didn't want Stanson to go back to Chicago, so they then put him in Peoria. Which was about as boring as it could get. He even took a pay cut.

He was about a block away from CTU, heading into the parking deck that was used for about five other local businesses. He took out his phone and dialed a number.

Alex picked up on the other end.

"Did you get out of CTU alright?" Stanson asked.

"Yeah. I had no problem getting out through the tunnel in the parking garage. It was a good thing you showed me that after Hwoarang came in."

"How did you get past Glendale?"

"Well. I didn't have to. She was in holding with Sarah. I walked past the guard. I guess he thought I was one of the regular people on the floor. It won't be long before he realizes that I'm missing. Jin's still in CTU though." Alex said.

Stanson entered the stairwell of the parking deck. He started taking the stairs two at a time, heading to the sixth floor.

"Jin will be fine. Glendale might drill him a little, but at least he's safe. Did you get the information uploaded to Hwoarang?" Stanson asked.

"Yeah. He should be at ICC any minute now. Where are you at by the way?"

"I'm just entering the sixth floor of a parking deck. I'm heading to a car. Why?"

"Because I might need your help, and if you want to continue on this investigation, you'll need me." Alex said.

Stanson had made it to the sixth floor. His car was the only one on the floor, and it was near the end of the aisle, which overlooked the entire InPlay building. He looked out, and there was Alex, looking up at him.

"Get up here then. Where the hell are we going?" Stanson said.

"Not on the phone. If Glendale were as smart as she seems, she'd already have this call monitored. I tell you in the car." Alex said as he entered the parking deck.

1:09:53 – Hwoarang pulled off of Highway 116 and onto Centennial Drive, the hill that led up to the college. About halfway up, the road began to curve off, and Hwoarang could see the parking lot behind the Performing Arts Center building.

He pulled in, looking off towards the main parking lots. They were all lit up from the bright halogen lamps scattered across the lots. If he parked there, anybody would be able to see him. He wasn't sure if the campus was clear, so the best choice of entry was covert. Even parking in the back of the campus like he was doing was risky, but it was his only real choice.

The car rolled to a stop. He shut it off and grabbed his bag, still looking around the vehicle for anything out of the ordinary. He checked the contents, which he was satisfied with: four extra clips of ammunition, a silencer, a tazer, a PDA, an extra cell phone, and a locksmith kit.

He exited the vehicle, and walked past it towards the back of the building. To his left was the road; to the right was an opening through the Caterpillar Training facility that led to a forest area behind the main building. He ran into the darkness, the building coming right into view as he passes the Performing Arts Center.

The building was lit up like a Christmas tree. The library on the second floor was lit up, as was the registration offices on the first floor.

The setup of the campus was like this: in regards to the main building alone, it was surrounded by forest on the north, west, and east sides. The building was the shape of a distorted circle with an open courtyard that acted as a gateway that would lead you directly out to the main parking lots. The PAC (Performing Arts Center) and the Caterpillar building was just south of the building and the forest of the west side of the campus.

Hwoarang could see a glass door on the side of the main building near registration. He sat in the dark for a few moments as he tried to remember where everything was. If he entered through that door, there should be stairwells to the left and the right, but he wasn't sure where they came out on the second floor. He could continue straight on, but the hallway would have left him with nowhere to hide, and he didn't want to leave any sort of body count. He didn't even want to have to tazer any guards.

It was a chance he was going to have to take. He ran to the door and peered inside. There weren't any guards in sight. Hwoarang pulled a small little device that sort of resembled a gun out of the locksmith kit. It fit right into the keyhole of the door. He pulled the trigger, and the door clicked open.

Once inside, he ran to the end of the hall, keeping low and hugging the wall. He looked around the corner to the left. It led to the main lobby and the cafeteria (which was abnormally large, given the size of the school). One lonely guard stood, his back turned towards Hwoarang. To the right was another hall that ended with a stairwell that led upstairs. He glanced at the guard one more time, and then made a run for the stairs.

1:15:26 – Jin was staring at the wall inside CTU's conference room. He had been staring at the same spot for a while now. He heard the gunshot earlier from one of the holding rooms, but it only got enough attention to make sure he wasn't being attacked.

Right now, he didn't know how he felt. Part of him felt like throwing up, another felt like crying, another screaming, and another like a mad rage.

He had been having an affair with a woman he once used to call a friend, and in turn betrayed another friend. Hwoarang had fallen in love with Ling first, but she left him. Then she shows up at his doorstep here in Peoria. She made love to him, and said to not tell Hwoarang. Jin sighed. If only he kept his mouth shut, and didn't let it all slip in front of Hwoarang, it would have all been fine. But it wasn't. Far from it, in fact.

He hung his head until it rested against the glass table. He sighed again, the cold glass keeping him from drifting off to sleep. God, he was tired. He wished today hadn't happened.

The door to the room swung open and Glendale stormed in. The sound came to Jin's ears and he raised his head, alert.

"Where the hell is Hwoarang?" Glendale demanded.

Jin looked at her curiously, as if she were crazy.

"Excuse me?" Jin asked.

"You know where Hwoarang Doo San is. You're his friend." She said.

"Was." Jin corrected.

"What?"

"I was his friend."

"Where is he?" She demanded again.

"How should I know?"

"He left here nearly twenty minutes ago, and I believe you would have an idea of where he would be heading."

Jin was tired, cranky too. He wasn't about to let some cocky, egotistical bitch boss him around.

"Well, seeing as the shit is hitting the fan? I would guess he's probably out running around somewhere, risking his neck to save us all. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep – right here on this table, alright?" Jin said.

Glendale wasn't impressed. In fact, her glare turned into a scowl. She was unusually pissed. She glanced out at two of the men that came in with her. They made eye contact through the glass and she waved them in. She didn't even wait for them to ask what was needed. She kept her eyes focused on Jin. She wanted to see if he would squirm.

"Take Mr. Kazama back to his house. Keep watch over him until I need him. He isn't to leave the house until I call, is that clear?"

Jin hadn't squirmed. He sat at the desk, with a stone cold focused look on his face.

"Crystal." One of the guards said.

Jin stood up and walked past Glendale, refusing to grant her the joy of eye contact, and continued on to his waiting escort.

1:17:49 – Hwoarang was on the second floor. He had been walking down the hall for quite a while now. He had yet to see or hear anything except his own footsteps, which were fairly soft and unnoticeable in the first place.

He continued on, looking into the various rooms when there was glass to look through. Most of them had a thin slice of chicken-wired glass that sat next to the door and extended from the ceiling to the floor. He had yet to come across a room that wasn't filled with darkness.

His cell phone rang, loudly.

Hwoarang noticed that he was right next to a bathroom.

(Inside the building, the room numbers were divided into letters. At one section, you would come across for example 310, which were four rooms labeled "A" through "D". After each one of these sections were either a staircase that would take you to either the basement or the ground floor, or a bathroom.)

He quickly flipped the phone open and ran inside, keeping the door open a crack in order to keep a look out for a suspicious guard.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Hwoarang Doo San?" Sam asked.

"Who is this?"

"Sam Montague. I'm here to provide you backup off-site." She said.

"How the hell did you get this number, and how the hell do you know where I am or what I'm doing?" Hwoarang whispered forcefully.

"Well, you've asked a loaded question. First off, we have a mutual friend who wants me to help cover your ass. And second, I know where you are, and what you're doing because I can see exactly where you're standing."

Hwoarang looked out the door. There wasn't a window in sight and no cameras were visible.

"You're bluffing." He said.

"Ok. You're currently in the women's restroom between 314 and 315. You're at the doorway, probably looking out into the hallway. Am I correct?"

"Fine. How'd you do that?" He asked.

"Infrared satellite. You might want to get inside, and turn off the lights. You have a guard coming up your way as we speak." Sam said.

Hwoarang turned off the light and shut the door. He noticed a small grate at the bottom of the door, which let some light into the bathroom. He got down onto one knee and looked through it. He could see the guard's legs stop in the middle of the hall.

"He's stopped." Sam said.

Hwoarang didn't speak to her. At this rate, even the slightest noise from him would give him away. He was lucky the phone speaker wasn't very loud.

The guard yawned. Hwoarang imagined him stretching his arms into the air. The man's legs finally moved out of view.

"He's on the move to the north. I'd stay there, if you can still hear me."

"I hear you. You don't need to worry about that. So who sent you anyways?" Hwoarang asked.

"Alex did." Sam said.

"What? How do you know him?"

"Well, I'll let him explain that to you. But it's a long story regardless."

"Are you from CTU?"

"Umm… not exactly. Anyways, the guard has entered the staircase down the hall near 317. There are two remaining guards on this floor. The first is by the library entrance at 340, and the other is back by 310. Where are you heading towards?" she asked.

"319B. Foster's office should have some information on a hard drive."

"Did he ever say what was on it?" Sam asked.

Hwoarang thought about that as he passed 317, but Foster never did say when he spoke to him.

"No. He just said that he was told to call me if he was in trouble. I never understood why he would call me though."

Hwoarang could hear her typing away on her keyboard in the background.

"Are you referring to a Michael Foster, who teaches there?"

"Yeah."

"Apparently, he was a contact with the CIA. I can't access the file, though. It's classified. Somebody there must have told him to contact you." She said.

Only one person immediately came to mind. One who he knew was with the CIA, and wasn't already dead. At least, he hoped not. Ling was the only one he could think of. It had to be her.

"Hwoarang. We've got a problem." Sam said.

He had just made it to the office, and had begun picking the lock when she spoke.

"What is it?" he asked.

"There's a group of vehicles arriving in the main parking lot. A van and three motorcycles. There's about six men coming out of the van, and two of the men on the bikes are getting off. One is staying behind. Are you in the office yet?"

The door clicked. The door was unlocked.

"Yeah. I just got inside." He said.

"There's another guy coming in from another building. The Performing Arts Center? He's by himself." She said.

"Great. Just what I needed." He said.

He flipped on the lights. There was a desk in the corner, with a desktop computer on it. Hwoarang thought this was just too easy.

1:24:17 – The car rolled to a stop inside a parking space just behind the library at Bradley University. Stanson put the car in park. He glanced in the rear-view mirror before looking over at Alex, who sat in the passenger's seat.

"Ok. We're here. Now what?" Stanson asked.

Alex pulled out his phone. It wasn't ringing. Stanson continued to look out the windows. Alex figured he was trying to see if anybody had followed them.

"We wait." Alex said.

Stanson scoffed. "How the hell am I supposed to believe that there's a secret base underneath the school, that not even CTU, who had been here in town long before, knew you existed?"

Alex looked at him with a stern and serious, yet somehow laidback look. "You're not. This was a black bag operation set up by the NSA under authority from the Secretary of Defense. Our primary objective, when we weren't on assignment, was to 'not exist'. The reason you never knew about us was because we didn't let you know."

Stanson shook his head. This was insane. He had been fooled, and now he felt like an imbecile. A place like this had been under his nose this whole time, and he didn't even know it was here. What made it worse was the fact that they were no more than two blocks from his house.

"Did anybody outside of this place know who you really were?" Stanson asked.

Alex's cell phone vibrated. He flipped it open. It was a text message. He angled it just right that Stanson couldn't catch a clear view of what it said. Alex didn't respond for a moment. He then slapped the phone shut.

"Yeah. One person did. Sadly, he's dead now." Alex said.

"Le Carre…" Stanson trailed off.

"He tried calling here on the flight in. He was trying to get a hold of me. Sam took his message." Alex said.

Stanson stared straight ahead with a clenched jaw. He was pissed now. Alex could tell.

"Look. I'm sorry about Gavin, but it wasn't about trust, friendship, or protocol. He knew because I reached out to him once Hwoarang was in my custody. I needed somebody in Europe who I could contact if something happened, alright?" Alex stated, raising his voice towards the end.

Stanson sighed and closed his eyes. All of this wasn't easy to accept.

"That was the signal though. We're clear to enter." Alex said, opening the door.

With that, Stanson hesitated a moment, and then finally jumped out of the car.

"Where exactly is this place?" Stanson asked.

"Westlake Hall. To the left of the Library." Alex said.

They continued up to the front of the hall, where Alex used a keycard to gain access inside. They walked in, and were met with a stairwell. Upstairs was dark, the only light coming from a halogen bulb on the downstairs wall. Alex immediately went down the stairs, and turned the corner. Stanson followed, if only a little confused at first. He didn't know the halls too well. He grew accustomed to the layout of the campus, but really only knew the basics about the grounds: streets, exits, entrances, dorm building locations, and the library.

Alex was standing in front of an old stone wall that had been painted white. It looked like it could use a fresh coat.

"The entrance is behind a wall? That's very original." Stanson said sarcastically.

"Hey, it worked didn't it?" Alex muttered.

Alex pulled a ballpoint pen out of his jacket. He twisted one end sharply, and a small, high-pitched noise pierced the hallway. It faded within two seconds. Stanson couldn't help but wince when he heard it. Alex hadn't moved.

"You get used to it after a while." Alex said, knowing Stanson's ears hadn't been happy with the invading sound.

A section of wall moved back, and slid away. It led to a dark alcove made of dark blue metal. Alex walked on in, and Stanson cautiously followed.

What Stanson saw next made his jaw drop. The base wasn't very big. It was probably about half the size of CTU, and yet it seemed to work more efficiently. A large plasma screen that had a map of the city on it, with different landmarks highlighted by a red dot, took up the wall in front of him.

In front of the screen was a giant "U" shaped table, with about four computer workstations sitting on top of it. To their immediate left was a small conference room, with a glass wall that looked out onto the floor.

Stanson continued in slowly, his eyes following around the room. The east wall held a bank of digital clocks that showed local times around the globe, and TV monitors showed broadcasts from news stations in other countries, as well as stations such as CNN, MSNBC, and the four local stations. The south wall was made up like the conference room, only with a solid wall partition. The two rooms appeared to be offices. One of the offices was labeled "SAC", and the other "Field Ops". Besides Alex, Stanson counted about five people in all. Stanson couldn't believe the décor either. Apart from the offices, and the glass walls, the place looked like it came out the movie "Tron".

Stanson shook his head.

"Unreal." He said.

1:28:58 – Hwoarang shuffled through the desk, continuing to open desk drawers and file cabinets, sorting through piles of pens, files, and other random things. But he still could not find anything resembling a computer hard drive.

Hwoarang had switched to a hands-free setup. He was lucky to come across one in Foster's office. It looked as if the man had gotten the same style of phone not long ago. The box was still sitting on the desk, opened, and the hands-free set was still sitting in the clear bag inside.

"There's nothing here. How the hell does the son of a bitch expect me to find a hard drive when he's hidden the damn thing too well?" He whispered, frustrated.

"Calm down. If you could have found it that easily, so could just about anybody else that came in there. So, he doesn't have a computer in there?" Sam asked through the phone.

"No. He doesn't. What's the situation on the hostiles?" Hwoarang asked.

"Well, they're closer. They've entered the building, and are on your floor. They've taken the right by the library heading towards 340. Keep looking. You've got to find it before they get there."

Hwoarang began to pull out the desk from against the wall. Amidst all the crumbs and dust, there wasn't anything there.

"Fuck!" he swore.

He turned around, looking at the far wall, and saw the air vent. He tilted his head and looked at it, puzzled. He could barely see a small black fabric cord brushing up against the grating. He smiled, and walked over to the vent. He pulled out his knife and pried it off. A small black pouch sat on the metal vent inside the wall. He grabbed it and opened it up. Sure enough, there was a hard drive inside.

"Got it." He said.

"Good, because they're getting closer to you. They're walking pretty fast. They might know you're there. Um, they just passed 333. They'll be up at the hall that connects 318 to 330. Get out of there."

Hwoarang didn't need to be told twice. He bolted out of the room.

"332." Sam continued.

He pocketed the hard drive and ran towards the connecting hall that the men would be coming across any second now. If he continued straight down the hall, and didn't connect over to the other side, he could run straight back to the library and out the front door. It was possible that they could just double back and cut him off there, at the library, but he just prayed that he would be faster.

The whole thing was shaped as a giant "I". At the top was Hwoarang, the long shaft in the center being the connecting hall, and the lower half being the other hall that came from 330 on down. Continuing on in that lower hallway would pass you onto 329, and eventually just circle around to where Hwoarang was currently positioned.

He stood up from the roll and turned into an all out sprint. He tried his best to shift his weight and his feet position as to try to not make much noise. He realized that sprinting here would be loud enough to notice, especially at this time of night.

The hall eventually circled, out of sight from the hall he just narrowly escaped from. He stopped at a stairwell, and ducked inside.

"Where are they?" he said, taking a few deep breaths.

"There are two guards walking up the hall towards 325, one guard is posted at the connecting hall. The rest are in Foster's office." Sam said.

"Good. But given the way I left it, they won't be there for long. They'll be looking for me." Hwoarang said.

"Fine. Then get out of there. You can regroup here at the base. Alex and Stanson just arrived a few minutes ago."

"They did?"

"Yeah. We did." Alex said, coming on the line.

"What happened?"

"The Regional Director, Victoria Glendale, staged a coup at CTU. Stanson's been exiled, and I barely got out there before they knew I was there. As far as I know though, Jin's still there. He should be fine though. Listen, get out of there and head towards the Bradley campus. We can check the hard drive here." Alex said.

"No. These guys just showed up. It's got to be something important. If I'm caught before I get out of here, that information's gone. Sam, you think you can hook yourself into ICC's network?" Hwoarang asked.

"Already am, Hwoarang." She responded.

"Good. I'm heading for the computer lab at 307."

1:35:16 – The black sedan continued to drive up the curves of what eventually would turn into Grand View Drive. Surrounding them was a deep forest that belonged to a nearby park, which most residents nearby still didn't even know after all these years.

Jin sat in the backseat. He was tired. The car was providing such a smooth ride that he had dozed off a couple times. But sudden jolts from different potholes in the road jolted him awake.

In the front seats were the two escorts that Glendale sent with him. One was currently driving and the other was talking on the phone. Jin hadn't made a noise the whole ride. The man on the phone must have figured that Jin was a sound sleeper because he had the receiver volume up fairly loud. It was loud enough for everyone in the car to hear Glendale's monotonous, objective voice on the other side of the line.

"Should we be doing anything to assist you from Jin's home?" the man on the phone said.

"No. We've been developing some leads here for other agents to take. I've got some more field agents coming in within the next few minutes." Glendale said.

"I'm just curious, but what leads have you come up with?" the man pried.

"Sarah is now spilling all kinds of information about her dealings with this Ko Yon-ha. She mentioned earlier a place called 'Rave', Ko supposedly went there around eight earlier tonight. She swore she didn't know anything more than that. Supposedly, Ko kept referring to it as that. We're running searches now, but we did find one interesting thing about him."

"What's that?"

"He has ties to the CIA, and possibly not just William Amstel. He worked as a liaison on some cases dating back only a couple of months, but the detail on them are highly classified. I'm going to try and get clearance. In the mean time, watch Jin, and I'll get back to you when I need you." Glendale finished.

"Ok." The man said, hanging up.

Jin wondered what "Rave" stood for, when it hit him. The movie theatre up at the mall. "Rave Motion Pictures"… it had to be it. He pondered the thought that if he could get there, he might be able to get a lead on Ko, and then beat the living hell out of him in order to get information on Ling. It could work, maybe. It didn't sound that far fetched.

But there was one problem: he was under guard. If he tried to ask them for help, it wouldn't be too good. He had overheard Glendale's whole conversation.

The car began to turn up into the driveway of Jin's home. The man who had been on the phone took out a set of keys. Jin handed them over earlier before he left CTU. He took the little button attached to the chain and pressed it in the general direction of the garage. It opened, and Jin was stunned to see his Jaguar missing.

The sedan pulled into the garage. Jin noticed the driver getting ready to turn around to look at him. He quickly acted as if he had fallen asleep. The driver tapped his arm.

"Hey, man. We're home." He said.

Jin acted as if he was waking up.

"What?" Jin said, groggily.

"You're home. Come on, get out." The driver said.

Jin acted as if he was struggling to get out of the car.

"That was a smooth ride, guys." Jin said.

The other man walked behind the driver, letting out a scoff towards Jin's comment. When they weren't looking at him, he thought of an idea.

It didn't even take him more than five seconds to act. Jin would probably later say that it just happened, and he didn't know what overcame him.

Jin quickly grabbed the head of the man directly in front of him, and threw his head hard against the side frame of the car. The driver jolted around, and Jin grabbed him by the neck. Jin punched him once in the stomach, and then threw him through the door that led into the kitchen. The man's back slammed up against the island counter and collapsed onto the floor. He was knocked out. Jin turned around to look at the first man he attacked. He was unconscious as well. Jin noted the sizeable dent the man's head left in the car.

Jin went to the driver and grabbed the keys, and then went to the other man and checked his pulse. He was worried that he crushed the man's skull with the blow. Luckily, the bastard was still alive. He searched him, found his gun, and took it.

Jin got into the driver's seat, and peeled rubber getting out the driveway and onto the street.

"Here we go." He whispered to himself.

1:43:02 – Hwoarang peered out of the doorway of 307A as he continued to pick the lock of the computer lab.

"Locations." Hwoarang stated.

"You're all clear. Nobody's coming up from the ground floor. Hey, just out of curiosity, why do they call the second floor the third, the first the second, and the basement the first?" Sam asked.

Hwoarang stopped for a second as he pondered the question. It was funny, because he had never really thought about it before. It seemed kind of crazy to him.

"Beats the hell out of me." He said, as the door clicked open.

Hwoarang opened the door to the lab, walking over to a computer on the far side of the room against a large window. He powered it on.

"I'm inside. Computer's powering up now." He said.

He reached into the bag and pulled out the hard drive. It was difficult to see the connections in the dark. The light coming outside was less than dim due to the forest he had right next to him. Woods technically surrounded the whole school itself.

Hwoarang connected the hard drive a USB cable, and powered on the monitor. It glowed greenish-blue throughout the whole room, and Hwoarang couldn't help but looking through the window behind him out into the hallway, just in case there really was somebody there.

"Keep me posted in case somebody comes by, okay?" Hwoarang asked.

"You don't trust me, do you?" Sam asked.

"It's not that. I'm just slightly paranoid about these sort of things."

"Ah, gotcha." She replied slyly.

The computer informed him that it had found the hard drive.

"It's found it. Now what?" he asked.

"Ok. Just hit these keys in order and then I can take control." She said.

"Fine."

"Backspace, Tab, Right Shift, and Escape." She said.

Hwoarang hit each of the keys, and suddenly, the screen went black. He was confused.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"I uploaded a Trojan Horse to the system. I set a couple parameters, and once your computer did what I needed it to do, I took over. I'm going to need you to stay close by for a few minutes. I'll upload the drive to our systems here, and then you can take the hard drive and get the hell out, okay?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, no." she said.

He wasn't immediately sure what she was referring to, but he got the hint when suddenly the lights in the room flickered on.

"Fuck!" he mouthed to himself.

Hwoarang scrambled to a nearby wall, out of view from the door to the lab. He pulled out his gun, silencer attached.

The guard started past the aisles of computers, heading towards the back of the room. Hwoarang could hear his footsteps getting closer. He was hoping he wouldn't have to do anything like this.

Hwoarang flipped out from behind the wall and fired the gun twice into the man's chest. The man yelled out as he fell backwards. The machine gun in his hand fired into the ceiling as he fell.

"Son of a bitch." Hwoarang groaned.

He could suddenly hear footsteps pounding their way down the hall.

"Hwoarang, get out of there now! Everybody's heard the gunfire. Go! Go! Go!" Sam yelled.

Hwoarang looked behind him at the window. He raised the gun and fired seven shots into the window, severely cracking the thick glass. He holstered the gun, grabbed a chair from a desk, and threw it full force against the window. It busted out of the frame, and fell down to the ground below. The chair bounced to the floor, landing right on the ledge.

Gunfire blew through the glass windows in the hall and into the room. Hwoarang immediately ducked, ran towards the window, and jumped out.

He landed in a large pile of leaves that were on a hill. The incline was sharp, and Hwoarang felt his body sliding, his feet digging into the traction-less mud.

"Are you ok?" Sam said.

For a second, he completely forgot she was there.

"Yeah." He said, struggling against the sliding mud underneath the leaves.

If you head north, you'll come out behind the kitchen. Head north until you see the bridge that connects to the Agriculture building." She said.

"Copy."

He got to his feet and walked along the side of the building. The woods cleared away for a small parking lot and loading deck that connected to the school's kitchen. A large halogen light saturated the area with a blue haze. Hwoarang pulled out his gun. Across the way, he could see the bridge Sam referred to.

Hwoarang sprinted across the lot, trying to ignore the pain in his ankle. He exited the light almost as fast as he entered it. It took him about three more seconds to get underneath the bridge. At this point, he knew exactly where he was.

"I'm under the bridge." He said.

"Ok. The guards from the lab are passing the library now. There is one guard on a motorcycle in the circle drive, and another in an SUV sitting in the big parking lots further north." Sam said.

Hwoarang darted up the stairs, pistol aimed at the top landing. He crouched as he reached the top. He was directly next to the Performing Arts Center. Not very far from the vehicle he arrived in.

"They're coming out." Sam said.

Sure enough, five men came running out of the entrance underneath the library.

"There!" one man screamed.

The man had pointed in his general direction. Hwoarang stood straight up and ran towards the guy on the motorcycle.

"Don't turn around. Don't turn around." Hwoarang muttered to himself.

The man on the bike turned around, and went for the machine gun he had around his shoulder. Hwoarang came rushing up to him, jumped in the air, and outstretched both of his legs. The impact hit the man hard in the chest, blowing him three feet away from the bike.

Hwoarang got himself up off the ground and jumped onto the bike. The gunfire started up again, bullets bouncing on the ground, and whizzing past his head. He swung the bike around, and caught a look at one of his pursuers. He wasn't surprised either.

It was Mabinko.

Hwoarang revved the engine, and flew off onto the main road, well out of range from the gunfire.

"I'm on the move, heading towards Centennial Drive. Do you have anything from the hard drive?" Hwoarang asked, the wind blowing in his face.

"Yeah. You should know that I can barely hear you with all that wind. We did find something on the hard drive. The only problem is that it's encrypted. We need a decryption key in order to read it. We pulled up his file, and there are two possibilities." She said.

"Where?" he said.

"The first is his office at his other job. It's a newspaper, the Peoria Times Observer. It's up on Pioneer parkway. The other is his home in East Peoria."

"It wouldn't be there. It'd be at his office. Has to be." He said.

"Ok. It's on…" Sam said.

"I know where it is. I'm about fifteen minutes out." Hwoarang said.

"Copy." She said.

1:50:34 – The black sedan drive through the parking lot of Rave Motion Pictures. Jin drove past a large trash compactor and into a parking space.

The rear of the building was a loading dock. The building itself was shaped like an awkward "V", but the angles are leaning over, almost forming a straight line.

Jin had been here before. The front lobby was huge, with the ticket counter being the first thing you run into. Through another door, and you were in front of a concession stand. To the left, you went to one side of theatres, plus another concession stand at the end of the hall. To the right, there was another hall of theatres, but there was also a stairwell. It took you up to the second floor, where you could get to the secondary exits to the biggest screening rooms. In the same hall way on the second floor was a door, which Jin figured, was where the management offices and projection booths were.

There was one door on the dock that seemed like it would get him inside, and just when he thought about exiting the vehicle, a female employee opened the door, and left it propped open by a trash bin. Perfect timing.

Jin jumped out of the car, the gun in his hand. He ran across the lot to the door, damn near sprinting. He quickly moved up the walkway that took him onto the dock. He brushed the door open, and stepped inside.

The hall behind the front concession stand was pure white. The walls bounced all the light around from the bulbs up on the high ceilings. The beige tile floor was slick. It had just been mopped. Jin heard the whirring noise coming from the carbonation machines and the icemaker directly in front of him.

He was in a small alcove, which was used to place everything that came through the large loading door next to him. He turned around the corner, staring down the very narrow hallway that curved around to someplace that Jin didn't know.

He heard a door swing open up ahead, and the same girl from earlier came out around a corner. She saw him and froze.

"Wh…Wh…Who are you?" she stammered, obviously scared.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Jin said, raising his gun.

She started to run off, and Jin darted up and grabbed her arm. She screamed, and he placed his other hand over her mouth. He pulled her close to his chest, the back of her head underneath Jin's chin.

"Shhhhh. It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. But I can't have you screaming out. I'm only here to get some information. If I see it, I'll be out of here. What I need you to do for me…." Jin said, looking at her nametag, "…Katie, is to take me to your manager's office upstairs." Jin said.

1:54:36 – Mark Johnson sat at the desk inside the office of Rave Motion Pictures. It was late, and he was ready to pass out. He heard the shuffling of money from Derek Walcott, one of his other managers, in the safe room, which was connected to the room through an open doorway.

He was adjusting the finishing touches on the work schedules on the computer in front of him. He felt like putting it off until the morning. The employees can wait. They still had another week before it should be up anyways.

He heard the door down the hall open, and people shuffling down towards the office. He heard the keypad on the office door being pressed, and he saw the last thing he expected.

In walked Katie, and a tall Japanese man with a gun, pointed right at him.

"Get away from the desk, now!" Jin commanded.

Mark moved away looked over at the safe room, and saw Walcott come out.

"What the hell?" Walcott said.

Jin pushed Katie up against the wall, quickly moved over to Walcott, and punched him hard in the face. Katie screamed out again.

"Stop! Everybody, just stop! Ok?" Jin said.

He walked over to Mark.

"You, are you the manager?" Jin asked.

"Yeah. What do you want? Money?" Mark asked.

"No. I need you to pull up the security footage from eight o'clock tonight." Jin said.

Behind Jin, Katie crawled over to the unconscious Walcott, and quietly pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. She flipped it open and dialed 911. The operator came on.

"911, what is your emergency?" the operator asked.

Mark looked down at Katie, and Jin caught the eye movement. He looked down at Katie, who was sobbing uncontrollably as she realized Jin saw her. She quickly dropped the phone and scrambled back on her arms into the safe room, her face locked on Jin's stare.

"Rave Motion Pictures! He's got a gun, please help us!" she yelled out in between sobs.

Jin walked over to the phone, and stomped on it. It snapped in half. He raised the gun at her.

"Why did you do that? I'm not here to kill anybody. Now get in the other room, ok?" Jin said in a calm voice.

Katie stared at him for what seemed like forever. She slowly stood up and walked into the main office, not saying a word.

Jin turned around. Mark was still up against the wall in the swivel chair from the desk.

"Do you have a police scanner?" Jin asked.

"No. We have cameras outside though. I could pull them up for you." Mark said, calmly.

"Thank you."

Mark swung himself over to the desk, and began typing away on the keyboard.

"Why didn't you kill her in there? Why are you after a video tape recorder in the lobby earlier? It doesn't make sense." Mark asked.

Jin came up behind him.

"I'm looking for somebody. He was here earlier. I know it. I don't kill either. Not without just cause. I knocked him out because I didn't want to have to control him. I didn't kill her because she's innocent and still has the rest of her life to live. You're alive because I need you, got it?" Jin said.

"Ok." He said.

On the screen, two different displays popped up. On the top half was camera footage from outside the front door of the theatre. On the lower half were four smaller images lining left to right.

"The top half is what's outside now. The lower four are from exactly eight o'clock tonight. The leftmost is from the camera on the high side concession stand outside theatre 16. The next two are coverage from the main lobby. The last is the concession stand outside theatre 7." Mark said.

"Pull up the main lobby." Jin said.

Mark clicked on one of the images. The picture maximized itself, and took up the whole screen. In the lobby were eight people, one of them with bright orange hair. Jin moved in closer to the image. It was Ko.

"That son of a bitch…" Jin whispered to himself.

Mark hit a key, and suddenly the image began moving. The video was playing.

Ko just stood there, looking out into the front foyer where people bought their tickets. A grin crept over his face. A woman opened one of the large double doors and walked in. She walked up to Ko and hugged him.

Jin's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

It was Ling.

1:59:57…

1:59:58…

1:59:59…

2:00:00…


	9. 2:00 am 3:00 am

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

Note: Urahara's name was shown as Urahara Komaru in the "12 AM – 1 AM" chapter. He is referred to as Urahara formally because of Japanese customs. For those who don't know this, Urahara is a last name, with Komaru being his given name. Other research information referred to in this chapter can be found in an encyclopedia, like Wikipedia.

The following takes place between 2:00 am and 3:00 am.

Events occur in real time.

2:00:00 – It took Jin a moment to actually comprehend what he was looking at.

The video was continuing. Ling had embraced Ko, and then she raised her head and kissed him passionately on the lips.

Jin's mind blanked. He felt like throwing up. He grabbed the desk in front of him and tried to breathe. This was unfathomable. Why would she be hugging and kissing the man who had kidnapped her, and only an hour after Ko had started Jin on this mad chase.

He walked over to the chair behind him and sat down. He felt so light-headed that he nearly dropped the gun in his hand.

Mark Johnson turned around to look at Jin. He had been in only one robbery before this, but something was different here. Jin wasn't after money, and he only knocked Walcott unconscious. But Johnson didn't mind that, the bastard deserved it. Part of him couldn't help but feel easy towards Jin though. The man was making empty threats it seemed. He just couldn't understand the tape though. Was it his girlfriend or something? It didn't make sense as to why he would come in here with a gun for something like this.

Mark asked the question running over and over through Jin's head.

"What does this mean?" Mark asked.

Jin held his head in his hands, looking at the floor in between his legs. He finally looked up at Mark.

"I don't know." Jin responded.

The office phone suddenly rang. Jin sternly looked at Mark, who glanced at the phone.

"Don't answer it." Jin stated.

"It's the private line for employees. It's two in the morning, the only person who would be on the other end are the companies who want box office totals. They call at this time every night, regular as clockwork." He explained.

The phone continued to ring.

"What happens if you don't answer it?"

"More than likely, they'll call corporate to tell them, who will call us again. Then on our cell phones, and then they'll probably send somebody over here from the office itself."

The phone rang again. Jin stood up.

"Answer it." Jin said.

Mark picked up the phone, still staring at Jin. A dumbfounded look crawled across his face.

"Uh… yeah. He's right here." Mark said.

Mark handed the phone to Jin. Jin grabbed the phone, and placed it up to his ear.

"Yes?"

"This is Sergeant Curtis Blane of the Peoria Police Department. We know you are armed and inside the building with possible hostages. We need to talk."

Jin was puzzled at first, but realized that this was going to happen. He mentally hit himself for being so brash about all of this. He should have done this some other way.

"Talk about what?" Jin asked.

"About how we can get those around you out of the building without being harmed. You don't want to make this any worse than it is, do you?" Blane asked, acting sincere.

"You might want to work on those negotiating skills, pal. Besides, one guy only has a bloody nose." Jin said.

"What is that you want then?"

"I already have it. The people in here, I'm not here to harm. But if you start coming in here, I'll change my mind." Jin said, hanging up the phone.

2:04:16 – Michael Stanson felt relaxed for the first time that evening. He sat in the conference room of what turned out to be a covert black ops base underneath the campus of Bradley University. There was nobody else in the room, and what made it all the more better was the fact that it was soundproof. It was nice.

The door opened, and Urahara walked in. The sound of phones ringing and computers randomly beeping invaded the silence. The older Japanese man sat at the head of the table. He glanced at Stanson, and silence once again continued to fill the room.

"I'm sorry about Gavin." Urahara said.

The comment got Stanson's attention. He turned to look at the other man.

"Thank you. He was a good friend, even if we didn't really know each other that long."

"How long had you known him?"

"Almost a year. I even flew over to England to see him once." Stanson said.

"It seems that the popular belief is that William Amstel is behind this." Urahara stated.

Urahara stood up and walked back to the door, his back to Stanson.

"Yeah. All but confirmed."

"Well, you should really know who all you're working with here." Urahara said.

"Probably. You said this was a black op unit under the power of the CIA?" Stanson asked.

"Our code name is Phalanx. We're funded through the NSA, though we take orders from all the major agencies, and sometimes even the minor ones."

"Which ones in particular?"

"CIA, FBI, NSA, ATF, IMF, and a couple others I really can't talk about."

Stanson nodded.

"I'm surprised. Such a major operation was right under my nose all this time, and I didn't even know about it."

Urahara chuckled.

"Well, be thankful you're here. Glendale's going to comb the city in order to find you."

"That's true. But if I couldn't find this place, neither will she." Stanson said.

"Fine. Let's go out and meet the crew then. Even if it's only Sam, Alex, and one more tech guy." Urahara said.

Stanson chuckled.

2:07:43 – University Street was more or less the centerpiece of the city. It was by far the longest street too. Ranging from near downtown Peoria, all the way up to the northern reaches of the city, which eventually went into the township of Dunlap. The idea stood out to Ko. He thought it was rather interesting. The street basically cut the city in half. You could get to either side of town within five minutes of being on this street.

Ko's SUV sped down the street, passing the midway point of the town, which included a small strip mall, a bowling alley, a movie theatre, a car dealership, a McDonalds, and a Wal-Mart. The light at the upcoming intersection went green, and he sped through it.

His phone, held by Velcro on the dashboard, rang out a standard ring. He wasn't much for those blasted custom ring tones that made him want to kill somebody every time he heard one inside a restaurant, movie theatre, airport, you name it. It was an itch he would have to scratch on of these days.

He flipped the phone on the dash and hit the speaker button.

"What?" he asked.

"Hwoarang got away from us." Mabinko said.

Ko gripped the steering wheel tighter. It was the only available outlet for his anger.

"When did he get away?"

"Almost thirty minutes ago. We tried to pick up his trail, but we lost him once he got across the river."

"Did he find the hard drive?" Ko asked.

"Yes."

"Dammit. Foster would have had the hard drive encrypted, and they key for it wouldn't have been kept there. He would have left it at his office. I'm closer to it. Besides, Hwoarang would never expect me to get the jump on him. Just in case, head to Armstrong's apartment, and take care of him." Ko said.

"I thought Armstrong was secure." Mabinko questioned.

"He should be. He's certainly not helpless. But we can't let CTU get a hold of him. I know Hwoarang. He's resourceful. It's probably the only reason he survived the incident in Tokyo. If he gets to Armstrong, then we'll have a problem. So get there as soon as you can, and then kill him." Ko said.

"Understood. I'll send a few men to keep him company, though I'll need to call in a favor to do so. I still need to clean things up here at the college." Mabinko said.

"Fine, just get it done." Ko said, hanging up.

He pressed the accelerator harder as the SUV sped down the street towards Foster's office.

2:11:09 – Hwoarang had managed to get inside the Peoria Times-Observer without setting off the alarm. In fact, it had been so simple, he wondered if there was an alarm. If only all alarm systems would be like that.

The front lobby was too simple. It reminded him of a front desk of a cheap motel. It was about chest high, had notices and reminders taped to the top of the counter. To his right was a corner that contained a boardroom, followed by a locked door, probably an office. This continued down a hallway that went up from where he stood, well beyond the receptionist's station. To his left was an open area with multiple desks that were for the staff.

There was another building connected to this one. An open doorway just beyond the desks to the left of him led him to the other side, which was reserved for the sales division of the newspaper. In all, the building was an oddly shaped "U".

The building itself was nearly pitch black, an emergency light on the ceiling giving off a small portion of light. It was barely enough to see what was in front of him. He looked around for the switch, and one found, began flicking on the lights. He continued down the hallway in front of him, and followed it back to a room, which contained a series of offices reserved for specific writers and editors of the paper. One door he found had Foster's name on it, and he went inside.

The office was tidy. Everything was organized. Two file cabinets stood in the far right corner. Foster's desk stood in front of the window, facing the doorway. An empty chair sat in front of the desk. To Hwoarang's left, in the last remaining corner were a couple of bookshelves containing folders of past stories, books, and various magazines.

Hwoarang noticed the computer on Foster's desk. He walked over to it and booted it up. While he waited for it, he took out his phone and called Sam. The line rang, and then she picked up.

"Yeah." She said.

"Ok. I'm at Foster's office. Any luck with the data from the hard drive? Or do you still need the encryption key?" Hwoarang asked.

"I'm going to need the key. Did you honestly think I would be able to do it without it?" She asked.

Hwoarang felt like a bit of an idiot. He really didn't know anything about this sort of thing.

"I can't access this line from here. What I need you to do is upload it to a secure FTP site I have broadcasting over the web. I pulled up the records of the newspaper's office, and it appears they have a T1 line." She said.

"What does that mean?"

She sighed. She clearly wasn't used to having to deal with somebody who really didn't know anything about all of this technology. Urahara, Alex, and it seemed Stanson knew enough to do their jobs. Hwoarang on the other hand needed some enlightening.

"It's an extremely expensive, yet fast way to use the Internet. Basically saying, I could transfer a large file in almost no time at all. Are you ready for the site name?" She said.

Hwoarang loaded up the computer's web browser.

"Go."

"Change the header from 'http' to 'ftp', and then type this in: 192.167.3.04.1."

Hwoarang typed it all in and hit enter. The page opened up, and had another location bar in the middle of the screen, with a "browse" button next to it. He hit the button, and another window opened, showing him the contents of the desktop. The only available file was the key file that he needed. It was odd to him, because the file ended with an ".yrh" prefix, which he had never heard of.

He hit another button and he was back on the main screen. He hit a button a little lower, and the screen changed to a progress bar. The file was uploading. Suddenly, the screen changed again, this time with the word "Complete" on it.

"Done. It's on there." Hwoarang said.

"Great. Urahara says to get out of there and go to the Bradley campus on Main, ok?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. I'll be there soon." He said.

Hwoarang slapped the phone shut, and quickly shut off the computer. He began making his way to the front lobby. He turned into the main hallway when a bright flash erupted in front of him, the sound of an Uzi pumping bullets out towards him. He ducked back towards the office.

"Hwoarang!" Ko yelled out.

Hwoarang was never easily intimidated, but nearly being riddled with a machine gun at that close of a range startled him. He looked towards the end of the hall, and noticed the emergency exit. He bolted for it, running out into a parking lot behind the building. A fire alarm rang out as he hit the door.

He continued to sprint as far as he could go, desperately wanting to get away from Ko. More gunfire erupted from behind him as he jumped over a large wooden fence just in time for the bullets to slam into it. Hwoarang could hear Ko scream in frustration, as he ran through the back yard of a house. He quietly hopped over the front gate of the house, and looked at the long residential street in front of him. It was the first time he had ever been really thankful to enter suburbia.

2:17:32 – Jin opened the door to the second floor warehouse, and ushered in Mark, Walcott, and Katie, the female employee. Katie didn't seem as frightened as she did earlier. Though Walcott was far from calm. Mark was keeping him from snapping, which Jin was thankful for. Though it didn't last long.

As Jin tired to walk him through the door, Walcott shoved Jin against the wall, trying to knock him down. Jin easily punched him in the stomach, grabbed him by the neck, and shoved him into the warehouse, which caused him to fall to the floor.

"You son of a bitch!" Walcott yelled out.

Mark tried to talk to him, but Jin abruptly cut him off by pointing his gun in Walcott's face.

"Try that again, and trust me, a broken nose will be the least of your worries." Jin said.

Walcott just glared at him. Everybody was silent as Jin continued to hold the gun about ten inches away from Walcott's face. Jin then quickly backed off, left the room and locked the door.

Mark stared at the door for a moment, and then looked at Walcott.

"Derek, you're fired." Mark spat out.

Walcott turned around in shock.

"Excuse me?" Walcott asked.

"You heard me. Now keep that fucking mouth of yours shut before it gets us all killed."

Walcott didn't respond. Obviously, Mark made a good point.

"He's all alone?" Walcott finally asked.

"Yeah." Katie said.

"He's not here for the money." Mark said.

"Then what is he here for?" Walcott asked.

"He had me bring up security footage from earlier this evening. There was some couple meeting up at the front doors. He was pretty shocked when he saw it." Mark said.

"He broke in here, took us hostage, and assaulted me, just so he could find some chick he was probably seeing, cheat on him?" Walcott asked.

"Uh, yeah." Mark admitted.

Walcott laughed. Mark had to admit. This was all very absurd. He looked at Katie, who still had a worried look on her face. The door to the warehouse suddenly made him worry. Jin didn't seem all that bad, but when he finally realized how stupid this all was he feared that Jin might be a bit crazy.

Walcott suddenly stood up, and walked towards the elevator.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mark asked.

Walcott hit the button. The elevator was there for easy access to the loading dock directly below them. The button didn't light up.

"He would have cut the power already, Derek. It's not going to work." Katie said.

"That's what I'm hoping for. The elevator should be downstairs. If I can get the door open, one of us can shimmy down, and get into the elevator, and possibly get outside. I heard you guys mention the police were outside." Walcott said.

Mark sat there on the floor, toying with the idea in his head. It wasn't a bad one. He looked up to see Katie running over to the elevator, and breaking the glass on the door that held a fire ax inside. The alarm didn't go off. Mark figured that Jin gained access to the building's different systems. God only knows why he would shut it off. Then it hit him. Jin was going to climb onto the roof.

Walcott had forced the doors open. He looked into the dark shaft, and noticed the elevator car down below.

"It's down there. I'm going in." Walcott said.

Mark just sat there, wondering what exactly Jin was up to in the rest of the building.

2:21:58 – Urahara was still in the conference room inside the Phalanx base. The folder in front of him told him everything about Glendale. It didn't scare him that she would be looking for Stanson. If anything, it was just an annoyance.

"She tracked the car from the parking garage? What do we do now?" Alex asked.

Stanson looked over at Urahara, wondering what he would say.

"We've had the car moved. There's a secure signal that's broadcasting a fake image to all other satellites that run over this area. If she's looking for you here, she won't find you." Urahara said.

Sam burst into the room. The door was heavy enough that it couldn't slam, but the gush of air the suddenly flew into the room let everybody know the urgency of her interruption. Urahara knew it had to be her. He never did turn around to see who it was.

"What is it Sam?" he asked.

She picked up a remote from the large table, next to Urahara. She aimed it towards a large widescreen monitor on the wall behind Stanson. The screen changed to close up of what appeared to be schematics.

"I finished decrypting Foster's hard drive." Sam said.

"That was quick." Urahara said.

"And what's this?" Alex asked.

She sighed. "At first, I found scientific data that discussed plutonium, uranium, tritium gas, and other data referring to radiation levels. Then I found schematics on radiation shielding. But I did some further research when I found this."

She flicked through a couple slides on the screen. Everybody looked at them hesitantly. Alex noticed Stanson had a horrified look on his face.

"What are these blueprints for?" Alex asked.

"They were schematics on how to properly detonate an H-Bomb." She said.

Urahara blinked.

"Excuse me?" he said.

"Yes. But this isn't just something random. This is a specific schematic. It makes reference to the number JH-136, and when I ran it against the U.S. nuclear arsenal list, it came up with a match. It was classified, which I had to hack around. But it's for a 60-megaton yield hydrogen bomb. The same one, which disappeared four months ago from a stockpile in eastern Montana." Sam said.

"How the hell does an H-Bomb just disappear? You would think somebody would hear about it publicly, right?" Stanson asked.

"Not necessarily. I heard about this when it happened. But word had gone down the line inside the agencies that there wouldn't be need to worry. Some higher-ups in the NSA said that they had the people who took it. Not to mention that they believed the uranium and other radioactive components would be well past their half-lives by now. The bomb was made in the late fifties. But by the sound of it, they have a way to 'refresh' it." Urahara said.

"The worst part of this comes from the fact that it's a 60-megaton yield. The Former Soviet Union tested a 50-megaton H-Bomb in Novaya Zemlya, up in the Arctic Sea back in 1961. It is to date the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated." Sam said.

"How big was the blast?" Stanson asked.

Sam looked at her notes. It took her a second to find her answer.

"The mushroom cloud rose to 40 miles in the sky, and the width was a little more than half of that. According to research files, people sixty miles away suffered third-degree burns, and the cloud could be seen from over six hundred miles away. Seismic reports from the blast show it registering on its third pass around the planet." Sam said, trying to stay calm while speaking.

"My God." Alex whispered.

"Sam, call NSA Director McGinnis, the Secretary of Defense, and the White House. People are going to want to hear about this." Urahara said quietly.

Sam left the room immediately.

"This is going to be the longest day of my life." He whispered.

2:26:28 – Hwoarang continued to sprint down the street. He didn't know how far he had gone now. He remembered turning left, then right, then right again, and then left, and then it was just a blur. He was lost. A stitch suddenly hit him on his right side, causing him to suddenly slow to a stop.

Turning around to make sure nobody was behind him, Hwoarang breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath. The pain in his side was annoying as hell, forcing him to bend over and rest his hands on his knees while he continued to breathe.

He turned around again, just in time to see a car begin turning onto the street. Hwoarang suddenly ducked in front of the parked car next to him, circling around it until he was safe out of view from the car that was coming.

The car suddenly stopped nearby. Hwoarang closed his eyes, and checked the pistol clip. He only had eight shots left.

The car door suddenly slammed shut. A handheld radio then clicked.

"What's your status? Did he come through up at University?" Ko barked.

"No. He might be doubling back towards the golf course of that road by Knoxville." The man on the other end replied.

Hwoarang heard Ko open the door to the vehicle.

"Fine. We're doubling back. If we can't find him then, we'll set up a perimeter and call in Plan B." he said.

The door shut, and Hwoarang heard the car start rolling along the pavement. But then, the car turned into the driveway next to him, revealing his position to Ko, sitting in the passenger's seat.

"Fuck!" Hwoarang cursed.

He scrambled to his feet, just as he heard the door open behind him. He ran towards the back yard of the house he was in front of, and ran into the woods behind it.

2:30:01 – Jin's face was about four inches away from the computer monitor in the manager's office. The police had called twice since he had put the employees in the warehouse. Blane asked about the hostages, and his demands, and then tried to make conversation. Jin wasn't about to let it work. He hung up both times, but not before saying that he wasn't going to kill anyone yet.

What the hell had he done? He couldn't believe the mess he had created. The answer wasn't what he wanted. It would have been much easier if it had just been a kidnapping, but now… what was he supposed to think? Instead of fighting her attacker, she embraced them. But she wasn't even being attacked, a whole hour after Ko called with instructions.

The monitor showed one angle coming from the loading dock. Walcott suddenly appeared on one. Jin's blank stare became one of frustration. He bolted from the room and kicked open the warehouse door, which had been previously locked. Sitting in the room was Mark, but Katie and Walcott had gone. Jin pointed his gun at Mark.

"They got out, didn't they?" Mark asked.

Jin didn't respond. His gun was aimed directly at Mark's face.

"You're lucky I'm not a killer." He said.

"You're not going to kill me?" Mark asked.

"No. But I want you to do one thing for me." Jin said, putting the gun down.

"What's that?"

"Is there any way to get down from the roof on the outside?"

"Yeah. We have rappelling equipment. We only really use it to change the bulbs on the building's exterior lights. But that's usually done by the specialists." Mark said.

"Good. How do I get up there?" Jin asked.

"The main stairwell you came up? You got here by taking the door to the right. The door to the left takes you up more stairs to another projection hall. You'll see a ladder that seems out of place. That's it. The rappelling equipment will be near the west edge of the building." Mark said, standing up.

Jin smirked as he approached Mark. He stuck out his hand.

"Thanks. I'm sorry about all of this. Really, I am." Jin said.

Mark shook his hand.

"I just hope I didn't get the wrong impression of what you were after. As for Walcott, I say he deserved it." Mark said.

"You're free to go." Jin said.

"You know the cops will be in here seconds after that."

Jin smiled.

"That's the point." He said.

2:34:45 – Urahara was in his office. He spiffed himself up just moments ago, and pulled his suit jacket out of the personal locker sitting there in one corner. He couldn't remember the last time he wore it. He leaned up against the wall and closed his eyes.

He never liked attention. He was used to video briefings with superiors and other sources, but he wasn't used to meeting high figures, like the President. It was nothing but a stupid fear that stubbornly refused to get out of his subconscious.

He took a deep breath and left his office, walking the short distance to the conference room. Alex and Stanson were already seated.

The speakerphone in the center of the table rang, and Alex answered it just as Urahara sat down in between the two men.

"Security code please?" Alex asked.

"Alpha-Echo-Delta-6-5-3-9-Tango." A female voice said.

"Clear. Go ahead." Alex said.

"The President is coming through on the video conference line. He is patched through to the Secretary of Defense as well." She said.

"Thank you." Urahara spoke up.

The screen in front of them then displayed two images, side by side. On the right was the Secretary of Defense, and on the left was the President of the United States.

"Good morning, sirs." Urahara started off.

"Thank you, Mr. Urahara. I just found out that I have a secret unit working under the NSA in central Illinois. What else is so important that you had to wake both us this early?" The President sharply asked.

"I apologize for waking you both in the middle of the night, but I'm afraid we have a problem. I'm sure you both know of the Combot incident in Japan earlier this year?" Urahara asked.

"Yes. What of it?" The Secretary asked.

"I don't know if you both were briefed, but a few of the survivors of that incident were given shelter here by the CIA."

"Yes. We know of it." The President said.

"Earlier this evening, a group of hit men came into town and started murdering them off one by one. We believe the man who hired them is William Amstel, the man who orchestrated the attacks in Japan." Urahara continued.

A look of dread came upon the two men on the screen.

"Where are you going with this?" The President asked.

"Sir, Amstel also had associates who apparently hired a man by the name of Michael Foster, a college professor. Foster was found dead at his home by local police twenty minutes ago. Just before that, we recovered information off of a hard drive hidden in his office. It was encrypted. We decrypted it to find schematics to a U.S.-owned hydrogen bomb that was stolen recently from the stockpile in Montana." Urahara said.

The two men were now speechless.

"Jesus." The President said.

"Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, the magnitude of this blast would be of sixty megatons, and if detonated, would be the biggest nuclear blast ever." Urahara said.

The President didn't respond. He seemed to be staring off into space off screen.

"Obviously the President is speechless. What do you need to find this bomb?" The Secretary asked.

"There is a problem with the local branch of CTU, which was infiltrated earlier this evening by a cohort of Amstel's. The Director of that branch, Michael Stanson, was fired for the leak. CTU is now investigating Stanson, and has come to us to help. But I'm afraid CTU will impede this investigation. We'd like you to help straighten things out with them so we can work together to stop this bomb." Urahara said.

"Are you sure it's going off soon?" The President suddenly asked.

"Sir, we can't risk it to think that it won't. I believe our only option is to find this bomb now."

2:38:50 – Jin found the ladder in the projection hall. It was just as Mark said, out of place. He climbed up the rungs to the top and came across a hatch. He pulled the lever and pushed up. A quick blast of cold air came across his face. Jin climbed up onto the roof.

Once there, he could hear people yelling in the back, just off the loading dock. Jin ran to that side of the roof, making sure to keep low, and peered over the roof. He took out his cell phone. He called 911. The operator picked up and gave the usual line, asking what the emergency is.

"This is the man who has taken hostages inside the Rave movie theatre. I want to talk to Sergeant Curtis Blane. Now!" Jin demanded.

"One moment please." The operator said urgently.

There were a few clicks, and then the line was dead for a moment. Jin peered over the roof again. He saw Blane in the distance, at the edge of the parking lot. He took out his phone and answered it. There was still silence on the other line, but it finally clicked again. The line was open.

"This is Blane." He said.

"You have all my hostages." Jin said.

Blane's head turned to the back of the building. He wasn't expecting this.

"So, why don't you come out Jin? You haven't killed anyone, that's a good thing. We'll probably just charge you with aggravated battery." Blane pleaded.

"Not a chance. You now have ninety seconds to send the SWAT team in here to take me down before I kill myself." Jin said, promptly hanging up.

Jin watched as Blane sparked into action. That was his sign to get the equipment. Jin ran to the west side of the building, far from the entrances, and opened the metal box next to the edge. Inside were two repelling harnesses, and more than enough rope to get him to the ground. He quickly put on the harness.

He secured the rope to his harness, and then tied it through a small metal ring that was welded to a metal square encased into the roof itself. Jin quietly swung himself off the roof, and started lowering himself to the ground.

It only took him thirty seconds. He looked around to make sure that nobody saw him. That was when he heard the gun hammer cock back. He closed his eyes and turned around behind him.

"You didn't honestly think I wouldn't have every base covered, did you?" Blane asked.

Jin didn't respond.

"Take the harness off, slowly."

Jin did as he was ordered. As soon as he threw the harness away from him, Blane grabbed his arm, and kicked him from behind the knee, causing him to kneel on the ground. In one fluid motion, Blane put his gun away, grabbed his handcuffs, and connected it to Jin's wrist. Once he was fully handcuffed, Blane grabbed his radio.

"Unit 4, I have the suspect in custody on the westward outside wall." He said.

"Copy that." The radio chirped.

Blane sighed and then turned his attention to Jin.

"You have the right to remain silent…" he started.

2:43:12 – The back door clicked. Hwoarang quickly removed the lock pick from the door, and put it in his pocket. Ko was still following him, and Hwoarang hoped that this would throw him off. In fact, this was only the third time he had actually broken into somebody's home. The last two times were when he was fourteen, reckless and immature.

He walked inside, and shut the door behind him. He stood in the kitchen for a moment, waiting for Ko to run past the house. A few moments passed, the tension nearly driving Hwoarang mad. Ko never passed.

Hwoarang was in the kitchen, which looked to lead into the living room, with a stairwell that led upstairs. He walked through the living room and started upstairs. There were many things running through his head: ideas for what he'd like to do in a couple days if he survives all of this, random thoughts about what Jin and Baek would do during a situation like this, memories of Ko from his Army days, and the basic thought that he should just hide.

Hiding was something he didn't like to do. Everything that was "him" screamed at him to go out at fight Ko head on. But the past few years had given Hwoarang a different perspective on life. The Army had taught him to think rationally, which would be to hide in this case.

Then it hit him. As he walked silently through the upstairs hallway, he noticed a pull down staircase hidden in the ceiling. This home had an attic. Perfect!

He was about to pull it down when he heard the front door to the house being kicked open. The hallway lights suddenly turned on. In a panic, Hwoarang opened the door closest to him, ran inside, and shut the door. He looked around, and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized he was in a bathroom.

Footsteps reverberated outside in the hallway. Based on the sound, he judged that there were about three men in the hall. Hwoarang heard a door at the far end open. One man began yelling profanities, and then suddenly four gunshots rang out. Everything was silent afterwards.

"Search all of these rooms." Ko said, muffled through the closed door.

The bathroom door opened, and Hwoarang threw himself into the door. He pulled his gun out. He shoved the man who opened the door against the wall, and head butted him. He looked down the hall, and noticed the other man raising his gun. Hwoarang turned his wrist and pumped three shots out of his handgun, one bullet flying into the man's face.

Hwoarang let go of the man against the wall, and ran like hell for the front door. Bullets followed him, probably from Ko as Hwoarang slid down the banister railing on the stairs. His feet slapped onto the hardwood floor at the bottom of the stairs as bullets smashed into the wall next to him. He turned to see one man aiming at him from the living room.

Hwoarang fired two more shots at the man, both making contact. He then ran for the front door, and ran outside as fast as he could.

He rushed down the street, having no clue where the hell he was going. He checked his gun as he ran, and he had three shots left. He held onto it, and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed Sam's number.

"Hwoarang? Where the hell are you?" She asked.

"Help me!" he yelled out.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Behind him, two cars started speeding towards him. Hwoarang looked around, and noticed a business entrance about one hundred feet in front of him. He ran to the sidewalk, ducking in between two cars. Gunfire came out from the two vehicles, now trying to stay at Hwoarang's speed.

"Hwoarang!" Sam called out, her end filled with the sounds of bullets hitting the cars around him.

Hwoarang knew he wouldn't make it to the entrance. He ducked into the bushes just before the entrance, and started running again. He noticed that there were no houses to be seen. Before he even realized where he was, he tripped and fell into a sand trap. Hwoarang had run onto a golf course.

"Hwoarang, are you alright?" Sam asked again.

"I'm in a golf course. I was attacked at the office, and I've been running around since." He said.

He stood up just as the two cars burst through the bushes and drove onto the course. Hwoarang started running again, running up a slope on the fairway, and sliding down the other side. He made a quick left as he slid, trying to throw the cars off track. The first car came over the slope, and Hwoarang fired his two of his last three shots into the windshield. The car stopped.

Hwoarang looked behind him then, noticing the pitch black of the woods. He ran into them as the second vehicle swung around the first one. The ground was very level at first, but then gave out to a steep hill. Hwoarang slipped on a patch of mud. He landed on the ground and started sliding wildly down the hill. He looked in front of him, trying not to run into any trees. He put his foot out, and stopped himself from running right into one. He stood up, noticing that he wasn't too far from the bottom of the hill. He ran to the bottom of the hill, and stepped out onto what looked like a rural highway.

"Sam. Are you still there?" Hwoarang asked, speaking into his phone.

"Yeah. What the hell happened?" She asked.

"I jumped into a patch of woods just next to the course. I slid down a hill and now I'm on some sort of rural highway. I have no clue exactly where though." He said.

"Well, you ran through a golf course belonging to a country club according to out schematics. The woods, the highway – it seems you've ended up on Galena Road." Sam said.

"There's an apartment building in front of me. I'm going to go take shelter there." Hwoarang said.

"Ok. We'll send somebody after you." She said.

He started running across the street just as an SUV drove into the lot and parked. He started walking towards the front door, when he saw two men with machine guns get out of the vehicle. Hwoarang ran inside, thinking that they were after him.

"Sam? Two men with machine guns just arrived here."

"Do you know the name of the complex?"

"The sign said Kingston Estates." He said.

"Ok. We'll send somebody there." She said, hanging up.

The building was small. He looked up the staircase he was on and counted the floors. There were three of them. By the look of the current floor, there were two apartments on each side of the building, and a second stairwell on the other side. Hwoarang ran to the other side, concealing himself on the staircase. He kept quiet as he heard the two men enter the building.

2:50:34 – Urahara walked over to Sam's desk.

"What the hell was that about?" he asked.

She looked up at him.

"Hwoarang's under attack. He's holed up at the Kingston Estates on Galena." She said.

"Dammit." He said.

Urahara waved Stanson over.

"What's up?" Stanson asked.

"Hwoarang's under fire at an apartment complex on Galena Road. Do you think you could run over there and provide him backup?" Urahara asked.

"Sure." Stanson said.

"Take one of our cars. It's loaded with some weapons. You'll find it over in student parking for the college. It's next to the student center."

"How will I know which one it is?" Stanson asked.

"Pay attention to the license plate. You can't miss it."

Stanson held out his hand.

"Um…. Keys?"

"Key code access, 21694." Urahara said.

Stanson smiled and walked off towards the exit.

Urahara turned back to Sam.

"Anything from the Secretary or Foster's hard drive?"

"Nothing from the hard drive, though one of the Secretary's aides say they talked to Glendale and informed her of the situation. They say she wasn't happy, but is willing to stay off our backs." She said.

"Good." He said.

The phone rang at Sam's desk. She picked it up.

"Security code please?" she asked.

Urahara looked past the desk, his mind drifting off to other things. His stomach grumbled. He was hungry.

"It's for you. It's Glendale." She said.

Urahara took the phone from Sam.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Urahara? This is CTU Director Glendale."

"How can I help you?" Urahara asked.

"I'm calling to let you know we're here to help. We didn't realize exactly what was going on earlier. But to let you know, things wouldn't have been like this had everybody just been openly honest. I tend to get hostile when people keep secrets from me."

"It's understandable, but I just didn't have the authorization to let our operation be known to CTU. I'm glad to hear though, that you're willing to help. Did the Secretary of Defense get you up to speed?"

"Yes. I know of the bomb. We both can be working on that, but we can also handle damage control throughout the city. But there is one problem, though maybe minor, we still need to take care of." She said.

"What's that?" Urahara asked.

"I had Jin Kazama put under guard and taken back to his home. He escaped. Police reports indicate that they have him in custody after he took hostages at the Rave movie theatre." She said.

"What the hell? Why would he do that?"

"We don't know yet. But I'm having some of my men take over the investigation. We should have him in about another twenty minutes. I'll let you know when we do." She said.

"Thanks. If we get something over here about the bomb, I'll have Sam send it over to you." Urahara said.

"Thanks. I think this will be a good working relationship." She said, hanging up.

2:56:49 – "I can't believe you don't remember the apartment number. Why the hell didn't you write the goddamn thing down?" one of the henchmen angrily whispered at the other.

Hwoarang was lying against a staircase hidden from the two men. The one who supposedly lost the number took out a cell phone and dialed a number. Hwoarang peered above the top step to take a look what was going on. They were on the third floor, and for the past three minutes, the two men were trying to figure out which apartment they were going to.

"Yes. It's Mikhail. I've lost the number of the apartment." The man said.

Hwoarang could hear a man on the other end of the line. That person had to be screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Ok. Thanks." Mikhail said, and hung up the phone.

"Well?" the other man asked.

"312." Mikhail said.

The two men looked at the door in front of them. The door to the apartment was right in front of them. Mikhail walked up to the door and knocked on it loudly.

It took a moment before the door slowly opened. The skinny, blonde-haired man who opened it was in his boxers.

"Hey 'blondie'." Mikhail said.

The man groaned.

"I told you to stop calling me that." The man replied with a British accent.

"My apologies."

"What do you want? Do you realize what time it is?" The man asked.

"Yeah. We do, in fact." Mikhail said.

Mikhail pulled out a silenced pistol, and he and the other man forced their way into the apartment. Hwoarang jumped out of his hiding place and came up from behind the Mikhail and shot him in the back of the head with the last remaining bullet from his gun. The other man with Mikhail turned to face Hwoarang, and was met with a kick to the face. He flew back unconscious into an end table that was sitting against a wall.

The man that they came to kill had cowered back onto his sofa. Hwoarang picked up Mikhail's gun. He pointed it at the man on couch.

"Why did they want you dead? Who are you?" Hwoarang asked.

The man didn't respond. A look of fear came over his face as he realized who he was staring at.

"You're him," he said with a scoff. "You won't kill me."

"Why?" Hwoarang asked.

"Because you need me." Armstrong said.

2:59:57…

2:59:58…

2:59:59…

3:00:00…


	10. 3:00 am 4:00 am

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

The following takes place between 3:00 am and 4:00 am.

Events occur in real time.

3:00:00 – Hwoarang pointed the silenced pistol directly at Armstrong.

"What the hell do you mean 'I need you'?" he said.

"Do you know who I am?"

"No. But you're going to tell me." Hwoarang said.

"My name is Peter Armstrong. I have information that will help you. There's obviously some reason they wanted me dead." He said, glancing down to the dead bodies.

Hwoarang took a step back, and glanced at the bodies. There was a bulge on the back of one of them in the shape of a machine gun.

"Don't even think about it." Hwoarang said.

"Why would I? That would work to my advantage. I want to make a deal with CTU." Armstrong said.

Hwoarang walked up to him and shoved him down onto the couch that sat up against the windows.

"I don't work for CTU." He said.

"Then who do you work for?"

"Me. Who do you work for?" Hwoarang asked sharply, throwing it back in Armstrong's face.

"William Amstel." He said.

"What did he hire you for?"

"He hired me to find a group of men who could take out a list of names. I believe you were on that list."

"Why?"

"Because you, my friend, are quite an annoyance. You're like a poison pill. Infuse you into any volatile situation, and it explodes into all out chaos. Lee Chaolan may have been CIA, but he was never one to let them run him like a puppet. He was destined to become the next CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu."

"So Amstel comes after me because I killed Chaolan? That son of a bitch was a middleman, just like you. It doesn't add up." Hwoarang said.

"If you know exactly what Amstel was up to, yes, it does. Look at the stock market. Amstel owns approximately one-third of the Zaibatsu's stock. He's on the Board of Directors. He was at the meetings there the day this whole sordid tale broke loose."

"What the hell was he doing there?"

"What else? He was showing off his Combot design upgrades to Lee when Heihachi decided to walk in, still alive. Lee was under orders from Amstel to have him killed before the meeting began, but somehow, he was able to throw a decoy Combot in his place. You see, the reason Amstel wanted Heihachi out was because that old kook didn't want to mass-produce the units. Amstel first came to him, but when he turned him down, he went to look elsewhere in the company, and found Lee. He was already a well-established arms dealer in China and Japan, and was beginning to reach into Europe and the United States. Amstel is one of four shadow directors in the company, but the only one taking charge. This is all simply about a mad quest for power, don't you see that?"

"My god. How much do you know?"

"Oh I know more. Much more."

"So he wanted Jin, Wallace, Le Carre and I dead because of the fact that we would probably be getting involved?"

"To a point yes. There are a lot of reasons actually. Amstel wanted revenge, but your deaths would also act as a distraction."

Hwoarang's phone rang.

"A distraction for what?

"If that's CTU, I imagine you'll find out in a moment." Armstrong said.

He turned around and flipped the phone open.

"Yeah?"

3:05:01 – "Hwoarang?" Sam asked, walking back to her desk from Urahara's office.

"Yeah, I'm here. What's up?" he asked.

"Stanson's on his way to provide backup. What's your status?" she asked.

"I made my way into an apartment. There were two guards that were about to enter and kill a man named Peter Armstrong. He's been hemorrhaging information since I got here. I think he wants to cut a deal." He said.

"Did you say Armstrong?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Sam stood up and stared at Urahara in his office.

"Sir!" she yelled out.

Urahara looked up, and then began to make his way to her.

"Sam." Hwoarang called out.

"Yes. Armstrong is a lead. His name is connected to the mole working inside CTU."

Sam hit a button on her phone, switching it to speaker. Urahara approached her workstation.

"Hwoarang?" Urahara asked.

"Sir. I've got Armstrong."

"Good work. Did he say anything yet?"

"He said something about the assassinations being a diversion for something else. He didn't say what though."

"Hwoarang, that diversion? It's a hydrogen bomb that Amstel stole from a U.S. nuclear arsenal, and he's probably planning on detonating it soon."

3:07:33 – Hwoarang turned around to look at Armstrong. He couldn't believe what he just heard.

"An H-Bomb?" he said.

"Yes." Urahara said.

"I'll get back to you." Hwoarang said, slapping the phone shut.

"I see you found the missing link." Armstrong said.

"Not funny. He's got a H-Bomb? What the hell! Why?" Hwoarang spat out.

Armstrong laughed as he sat back in the couch. Hwoarang walked up and grabbed him by the throat, pushing the side of his head into the cushion of the couch. He took the gun and set the barrel against his right eye.

"You laugh again at all of this, and I might just kill you. Amstel's bound to send more men, right? Well, maybe I'll just finish the job for them. Because there's plenty more people that I can get the information from." Hwoarang whispered into his ear before finally shoving off of him.

Armstrong glared at Hwoarang. The two men locked eyes for several moments, before Armstrong stood up to go into the kitchen. Hwoarang punched him in the solar plexus (the small area in the center of the chest, at the edge of the breastplate), causing him to fall back onto the couch clutching his chest.

"Jesus Christ! I was just going for a cup of coffee!" Armstrong protested.

"While I'm here, asshole, I'll tell you what you can and can't do, and when to do it." Hwoarang said.

"Why don't you try getting me out of here, and back to CTU?" Armstrong said.

Hwoarang walked into the kitchen, looking for the coffee pot. Now that Armstrong mentioned it, he needed some. It somewhat shocked him that only eight hours ago he got back from a class at ICC when all of this started. He had been up since just about seven that morning, which would put him at just around twenty hours since he'd been in bed.

"Yeah, yeah. In due time. Where's your coffee mugs?" Hwoarang asked, finding the coffee pot.

3:10:14 – Jin sleepily blinked, staring at the back of the movie theatre as he leaned against a squad car, handcuffed. In all he counted about ten cars, a paddy wagon, and a SWAT van.

He was fairly surprised by Blane's trick. But it wasn't completely out of his mind's reach. He had a feeling that he would be caught eventually, though he really didn't care about that. Jin just really wanted to find Ling. He originally thought that she was out there somewhere, in trouble if not dead, and his curiosity was sometimes a force to be reckoned with.

Sitting on a curb nearby, Jin watched as Katie approached Mark, hugging him as if he had just come back from the dead. They were really just happy to be alive. As they hugged, Mark glanced over at Jin. The look on his face was blank, as if everything he said earlier was taken back now. It had all been in vain. Mark could now show his true face, now that no harm could be done.

Blane quietly walked up behind Jin, observing what was happening.

"He did what he felt would keep him safe." Blane said.

"He betrayed my trust." Jin said, staring at the other man still sitting on the curb.

"You walked in there with a gun. How could he trust you?"

Jin didn't respond. Blane had finally made his choices hit him with full force. What the hell had he been thinking? He was headed to jail for breaking and entering, assault, resisting arrest, and a small list of charges he couldn't recall off-hand. The realization of what was going on was forcing his mind to shut down.

"I know this won't make you feel any better, but it wasn't by chance that I found you there. Right after we entered, Mark came out telling us that you were coming down from there. I just happened to get there first." Blane said.

For some odd reason, Jin felt alone. His body shivered slightly as a cold wind blew through. Was this all because he just wanted an honest human connection to share with somebody? Was it for something that, in the end, he didn't have to fight with? Deep inside his heart, he yearned for a connection that he could confide in. Ling gave that to him, or at least teased him with it.

He hated himself for betraying Hwoarang's trust. But part of him rejoiced in doing it, because for the first time in ages, he was truly happy with himself, and who he was. Now that was all gone.

Jin looked at the ground, the look of the people in front of him making him want to vomit.

"Just get me out of here." He said.

"My pleasure." Blane acknowledged.

He grabbed Jin by the arm, guiding him towards the paddy wagon. They approached it, and one officer opened the door for them. Jin stepped inside first, with Blane following, still clutching Jin's arm. The door then shut behind them, leaving them in darkness for a moment. A pounding noise resounded through the back twice. Jin realized that it's probably the officer outside tapping, signaling the driver of the vehicle.

Jin tried to feel his way around with his legs for the seats when the single overhead light came on. He sat down and stared at Blane, who had already found his seat.

"Do you think you could take these things off? They're a bit tight." Jin said, referring to the handcuffs that held his hands behind him.

Blane looked towards the front of the vehicle.

"Get us going, please." He said.

The vehicle started to move.

Jin thought about how many excuses he could fire at Blane, to try and get out of the mess he made. As alone as he felt, nothing was right about this.

"Can I tell you something?" Jin asked.

"What?" Blane said, finally.

"I'm not just a regular civilian. I'm involved in a case with the Counter Terrorist Unit here in Peoria. You can call them and verify." Jin said.

Blane chuckled. He had been staring at the floor for the past few moments before finally glancing at Jin, and then at the front of the small cell towards the driver's cab. A small patch of the wall had been replaced with a thick metal fence. It was there in order to hear from the driver, and see what may be going on in case of an emergency in the cab.

"How long until we get downtown, do you think, guys?" Blane asked.

Jin glanced towards the front, noticing that the vehicle was turning onto Interstate 150. The long stretch of road ran through the entire north half of the city, passing all the five major, parallel streets.

A light crack of thunder pierced the sky, with a bright flash of lightning following thereafter. The driver stared forward at the road, another officer sitting in the passenger seat.

Jin watched the driver as his arm came up, with a tazer in hand, and zapped the other officer next to him.

He turned to Blane in shock. Blane just watched him with a small, smug smile on his face.

"What the hell?" Jin muttered.

"We right on schedule, sir. We've got ten minutes before the next check in. Estimated time to the drop off is about twenty-five minutes." The driver said.

"Good work." Blane said.

Jin began to make the connection. Blane could tell he didn't like what he was thinking.

"No. No! I'm not jumping through hoops for you." Jin said.

Blane leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees.

"Relax, Jin. We're not here to hurt you." Blane said.

"Who the hell are you?" Jin asked.

Blane chuckled.

"Well, we're certainly not police." He said.

"Well, then what do you want?"

Blane smiled.

"Somebody we know wants to see you. We're taking you to them." He said.

3:18:46 – Hwoarang leaned against the counter in Armstrong's apartment. The coffee cup he held in front of his face was still steaming hot.

Armstrong stared at him from the living room. The man wasn't happy that he was still here. Hwoarang wondered where Stanson was. He swallowed down a gulp of coffee, the faint sound of a phone vibrating coming in from the other room.

"Is that your phone?" he asked.

Armstrong glanced down onto the floor by the front door. Hwoarang set the cup down on the counter and walked towards the sound, the phone belonging to the unconscious man who still wasn't waking. He pulled the phone out of the man's jacket, not recognizing the number on the ID. It continued to vibrate.

"Answer it." Armstrong said.

"No. At this rate, they must know something's up." Hwoarang said.

He then noticed a pool of blood that sat still around the man's head. His glance followed to the small end table that he laid against, one of the sharp corners covered in drying blood.

"Well, that tells us why he's not waking up."

"Why?" Armstrong asked.

"He hit his head on the table after I kicked him. He bled out."

Hwoarang turned around and starting to search the pockets of the second guard he killed. The back of the man's head was a bloody stump, the bullet having caused a massive amount of damage to his skull.

He found an MP5 hidden by the man's jacket, one extra magazine, and another clip for his silenced pistol, which Hwoarang had in his waistband. He rifled through his pockets, searching for another cell phone when a thin piece of piano wire wrapped around his neck.

Armstrong stood over him, clutching the wire, trying to strangle him.

"You think you're so smart? You should have tied me up first, you idiot." Armstrong said, tightening the wire.

Hwoarang had fallen back onto the floor, grabbing at his neck. He didn't expect it, and wasn't able to fit a finger in between the wire and his neck. Most times, that bought you a minute or two in trying to free yourself before losing consciousness. That wasn't the case here. The wire was starting to cut into his neck.

He got onto his hands and knees, Armstrong circling around to keep the wire in place. Hwoarang wheezed as he tried to stand up, only getting on foot planted on the floor. Armstrong brought his knee up, striking Hwoarang in the ribs. He growled, frustrated.

Hwoarang pushed himself up, and immediately ran backwards, pushing Armstrong along. They ran into a wall, a glass picture frame shattering over Armstrong's head. It didn't work, the wire still had a tight grip around him.

His sight started to blur, his body starting to feel limp. Hwoarang then dropped to his knees, and Armstrong kept the wire held tight.

In a last effort, Hwoarang raised his arms up, grabbing Armstrong's arms. He threw Armstrong over him, the wire immediately releasing. Armstrong crashed into the wooden coffee table nearby, which collapsed into multiple pieces. Armstrong groaned.

Hwoarang fell to the floor, coughing, breathing deep. He looked over at Armstrong, who wasn't moving. He thought it was safe to pass out, his head lightly landing against the floor.

3:24:27 – Urahara rubbed the bridge of his nose where his glasses would normally sit. He was still getting used to the contacts that he finally decided to try out. They continued to sit in his sagging eyelids, the result of him being so tired.

For what seemed to be the billionth time tonight, he walked over to Sam's desk. She had been pushing herself since the crisis really began. Now she had enough work to overload three people.

"Sam? You called." He said, approaching her.

She continued to type frantically at the keyboard, her eyes never leaving the screen.

"I've got an address on a piece of property Armstrong leased. It was a small garage just east of downtown here. It stood out because he leased it four months ago. The apartment was leased one month ago." She said.

He smiled.

"Great work. Keep it up." He said, walking briskly back towards his office.

Alex was sitting at a table, drinking a cup of coffee, typing away on a laptop. There were small amounts of paperwork in front of him, but it was mostly pictures and graphs of that sort.

"Alex." He called out.

"Yeah, Sam just sent me the address. I'll go check it out." He said.

Alex stood up, shutting his laptop. He grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and started to walk off when Urahara grabbed his arm.

"Hey. Be careful out there, ok kid? I've got a bad feeling about all of this." Urahara said.

Alex looked at him like he was paranoid. It did kind of scare him. Urahara was usually in charge, by the book, straight-faced, "nothing gets in my way", that sort of thing. This was the first time Alex actually had seen him fairly concerned.

"I'll be fine. If I need backup, I'll call." Alex replied.

"If you need backup, call CTU, call the police, or just call somebody other than me. We have other resources that would be much more helpful." Urahara said.

He let go of Alex, who immediately threw his coat on, and left the building.

3:28:06 – Hwoarang groaned. He rubbed his eyes as he rose to his knees. His head lightly pulsed, sending a wave of pain throughout his face. This wasn't anything compared to how dizzy he felt. The slight lack of oxygen he had from nearly being strangled made him feel like total hell. He was actually surprised he didn't feel like throwing up.

A gun hammer clicked over by the couch.

Hwoarang stared up to find Armstrong, fully dressed, and holding the silenced pistol in his hand, which rested against his crossed legs.

"You're awake." Armstrong said.

Hwoarang almost thought he was dreaming.

"What the hell?" he said, starting to walk forward.

Armstrong raised the gun from its sitting position.

"Don't move." He said.

Hwoarang froze in place.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm trying to save my own life. You had your chance to get me out of here, but I think your friend is arriving too little, too late." Armstrong said, noticing a pair of headlights coming into the lot outside through the semi-closed blinds hanging on the window behind him.

The car outside stopped. The engine noise died, and a car door opened.

"That would be him?" Armstrong asked.

Hwoarang didn't honestly know. He would figure that Stanson would have parked further away, all so he could maintain some form of cover.

"I don't know." Hwoarang finally answered.

The car door shut.

"Well, I'll be quick. In case it is. While you were unconscious, a van pulled into the lot. Seven men got out, including one of the two infamous Mabinko brothers. I have no clue what happened to the other. I could never tell them apart. But based on the clothes I would guess it was Zesiro. He always had a thing for flair. But he is here, now, with six other men. And your guy's coming in like this?" Armstrong said.

"You're going to use me to barter your way out of this?" Hwoarang asked.

"Actually, I'm going to use this to barter my way back in. You're worth ten million to me, I'm just not going to bail out of this." Armstrong said, standing up.

"That's your payoff? $10 million?" Hwoarang asked.

"Ten million Euros actually. The Dollar isn't quite as profitable these days, especially in Central Europe."

Hwoarang hated how Armstrong was taking his time explaining things, the callous bastard. He just couldn't let Stanson walk into a trap.

"Let me call my man. Please?" Hwoarang asked.

Armstrong walked closer, the gun barrel still aimed at Hwoarang's face.

"Take that phone out of your pocket, and I'll blow your face off." Armstrong said, oozing with malice.

3:33:33 – Stanson opened the front door of the building. Urahara called him not more than a few minutes ago. Hwoarang had taken care of the two men that were about to take Armstrong out.

Now he only needed to get upstairs. Stanson yawned.

He passed the section of wall that housed all of the mailboxes, when a pistol barrel rested against the back of his head. The hammer clicked.

"Dammit." He muttered.

"That's right. Drop your gun onto the floor." Mabinko said.

Stanson unclipped his holster and grabbed his gun by the grip. He brought it out into the open slowly, before dropping it to the floor. It landed with a loud thud.

"Good. Now start walking to the stairs." He said.

Stanson started walking towards the staircase in front of him, hoping that Hwoarang somehow got out before him.

3:35:16 – It had been nearly twenty minutes since Blane showed his true self to Jin. It had also been about that long since either of them spoke a word.

The van circled around a curve down a hill onto the downtown side of Main Street. The traffic was minimal, only one other car was coming up the hill, but six or seven others could be seen on the various streets from the hill.

"So this person is sitting in a bar?" Jin asked.

Blane shook his head. He looked through the caged window into the front of the cab, and took in the view from outside. The neon lights shining brightly, their colorful glow reaching into the back of the "cell".

The vehicle moved past the major bars, past the county courthouse, and started to move down another, much smaller hill towards the river.

"No. This person is not sitting in a bar. This person will meet you on a train." Blane said.

"What?"

"Yes. A train."

The vehicle pulled into the riverfront pavilion. It housed several different areas including restaurants, stages for concerts, a recreation center, and a train station/restaurant called the "River Station". It was here that the paddy wagon began to pull into after entering the main lot.

Jin sighed. "Where's this thing heading?" he asked.

"I can't tell you." Blane said.

Jin chuckled, shaking his head. He couldn't believe this.

"You expect me to get on a train, heading to someplace you can't tell me, to meet a person I've never heard of?"

"Well, you've met this person before. I can't tell you who because I'm not authorized to do so. All I can say is that once you're on board, you'll get answers." Blane said.

"I don't believe you. Anyways, how do you know I'll even get onboard and not just go straight to CTU?" Jin asked.

"Because you're curious. Because you want answers. You took hostages at a movie theatre based on the information that Ling was there earlier in the evening. CTU never would have gotten that information had we not called it in to them. And the reason they're not following up on it, and not revealing it to the group Hwoarang is currently running all around for is because of us. We trump them all. We are in charge." Blane said.

"Who's 'we'?" Jin asked.

Blane smiled.

"Get on the train and find out. There's a ticket waiting for you at the counter inside. The train leaves at four, Jin. I suggest you be on it." Blane said, the back door opening up.

Jin didn't even notice that the vehicle stopped. He was too busy trying to figure out what questions he should be asking.

Blane motioned for him to get out. He didn't want to find out what would happen if he didn't. Jin stood up and hopped out of the vehicle. He looked at the doors to the station, and almost two seconds later the paddy wagon started to move on.

Jin walked into the station, still not completely sure what the hell was happening.

3:40:25 – The car pulled up to the small garage, looking dark and abandoned at this time of night.

Alex got out of the car, leaving the headlights aimed at the front of the building. He took out his gun, not wanting to take any chances. The place seemed abandoned, but that's usually just a façade.

The appearance of the space was simple. There was a small office on the left side of the building, which was connected to a large garage space next to it. Alex wondered why Armstrong would be using it, other than maybe prepping the bomb to be detonated. If that were the case, then it would probably be scheduled to go off sooner than expected. Hell, if he luck would have it, the bomb would be here. But if that were true, there would be more security. He glanced over his shoulder, slightly paranoid at the thought, curious to see if somebody was coming up behind him.

The door to the office was locked. Alex broke the window and opened the door from the inside. The door creaked open, the light from a nearby street lamp giving off faint shadows of the interior of the office. Alex flicked on the lights, the fluorescent bulbs buzzing to life.

The office was a mess. Papers were horribly organized on two desks, one sitting behind the other. It was as if the papers had just been thrown into two messy piles at the corners. There was no real care taken here.

Alex grabbed the top sheet of a pile. The first few seemed to be rental contracts for about seven white vans, one rented out to Maxwell Tiis, others to the Mabinko's, and one other to Armstrong. He was surprised that they used their real names for something as trivial as car rentals. It seemed sloppy to him. He set the papers down onto the desk, not wanting to take the time to sift through the rest.

He moved to the garage area. On the other side of the garage was a computer desk with a small desk lamp. The light was on, as was the computer. Even if it was on a screen saver, it made Alex wonder how long ago it was used. He moved closer to it, the hard drive whirring loudly in the silence.

A foot scraped against something in the office. Alex quickly turned around, ducking down onto one knee to face the other room just in time to see somebody walk into the doorway. He pointed his gun at the man, who then noticed him, raising a sub-machine gun. Alex fired before the other man could even get a shot off, double tapping him in the chest.

Alex stayed in place, just in case a second man was stupid enough to walk right into the path of fire. After a few moments, he was satisfied, and got up to go check on the man he took down. The bullets must have created at least one exit wound, based on the amount of blood pooling underneath the man.

A pair of arms suddenly wrapped around his arms and chest, squeezing him hard. The other person behind him then head-butted him, causing his vision to blur momentarily. Alex groaned as the other man tried to pick him up off the floor. Whoever this was, he was a total amateur.

Alex planted his feet on the floor, making a point to slam on heel onto the other man's foot, which surprisingly did nothing. The man was trying to perform a suplex on him, which seemed stupid given that he had a perfect chance to just shoot him in the head if he had a gun.

The man squeezed harder, making it harder for him to breathe. Alex buckled his knees, happy with how much leverage his legs had, and began to run backwards fast. The two men ran into the side door that Alex's attacker came through, slamming it shut. Alex then yelled out, slamming the back of his head into the other man's face multiple times, over and over again. The grip the other man had loosened completely, and Alex broke free. The other man stumbled away from the door, his face bloodied from a shattered nose. Alex then wrapped his arms around the man's neck, his arms flailing about, probably knowing full well what was about to happen. In one smooth motion, Alex twisted the man's neck sharply to the left, a loud crack signaling that the man's spine just snapped. Alex let him go, the body falling to the concrete floor.

He took a deep breath, wiped the small amount of sweat off his brow, and walked back to the computer. He smacked the space bar on the keyboard, bringing the display back from the screen saver. An email program was open, listing multiple amounts of messages from different people, half of them he didn't recognize. One was labeled from Amstel, the time stamp marking it sent not more than two hours ago. The message was simple: "Kill the targets. Make sure the bomb is in Chicago by dawn. Don't forget to make a backup of the server from the station in Amana. If for some reason it is not in the location mentioned earlier, talk to Fox. He will know. Afterwards, destroy it. CTU cannot get a hold of the information there. This is vital to our success today. We will then rendezvous at the scheduled place at Noon."

Fox. Amstel must have been talking about Steve Fox. Alex took out his phone and dialed Urahara's number.

"Yeah?" Urahara asked.

"You're going to want to hear this." Alex said.

3:47:49 – The door to Armstrong's apartment pounded.

Hwoarang sat in a kitchen chair directly across from Armstrong, who still sat on the couch with the gun pointed at him.

Hwoarang knew that it was Mabinko. There were only two things that would come out of the big man's mouth, which would imply that they either killed Stanson or they were holding him hostage.

"You're a piece of shit, you know?" Hwoarang said to Armstrong, staring at the door to the apartment.

"I know. But it's the only way either of us will get out of here alive. Mabinko has orders to kill both of us. They'll kill me if I've hemorrhaged information, which I have, and they'll kill you just because you're you. I'm letting this play out like this because I enjoy seeing people suffer." Armstrong said.

The door pounded again.

"Go see who it is." Armstrong said.

Hwoarang hesitated before standing up, not sure who he should be expecting a bullet from – Armstrong or Mabinko. He approached the peephole, looking through it. Directly in front of the door was Mabinko. Stanson was right next to him on his knees, in clear view. Mabinko had a gun to his head.

"Who is there?" Mabinko roared.

Hwoarang turned around to look at Armstrong.

"Well go on. Tell him who you are." Armstrong said.

Hwoarang took a deep breath, and looked through the peephole again.

"It's me. Hwoarang." He said.

"Hwoarang, eh?" Mabinko asked.

"Yeah." He said.

Armstrong stood up from the couch.

"I've got a present for you, Mr. Hwoarang. It's from my brother."

"No." Hwoarang whispered.

Through the peephole, he could see Stanson close his eyes. The gun went off, sending Stanson sprawling to the floor with a fine red mist spraying out the other side of his head.

"No!" Hwoarang screamed.

Mabinko laugh echoed through the door. Hwoarang could feel his body grow numb, his head dizzy. He turned around to face Armstrong as a tear rolled down his cheek. He couldn't breathe for some reason, even though he continued to try. He sounded like he had just run a couple of miles straight.

Armstrong walked towards him, the gun aimed at Hwoarang's face.

"It's time to leave. This is the end of the line." Armstrong said.

Something snapped. Hwoarang would never know exactly what set it off, but it certainly wasn't Armstrong's words, or the fact that the gun wavered no more than two feet in front of his face. Hwoarang ducked and ran towards Armstrong, who fired the gun. The bullet grazed his neck, but it didn't stop him from pushing into Armstrong's abdomen, scooping him up, and slamming him against the hardwood floor.

Armstrong began coughing from the blow, having also dropped the gun in the process. Hwoarang scrambled for it as it slid against the broken coffee table. He grabbed it and stood up, aiming it at Armstrong.

"Stand the fuck up, now!" Hwoarang yelled.

Armstrong rolled over, the pain probably still shooting down his spine. Hwoarang was in a fury. Hw grabbed Armstrong's shirt and pulled him to his feet. He wrapped one arm around his neck, and shoved the pistol into his side.

"What do you think you're doing?" Armstrong protested as Hwoarang pushed him towards the door.

"You want Armstrong, right?" Hwoarang yelled out.

"Yes." Mabinko said.

"Well, I've got him, and I'm not afraid to kill him either."

"I haven't told him anything." Armstrong cried out.

"I'll give him to you if you grant me safe passage out of here." Hwoarang said.

"Come out and we'll talk." Mabinko said.

Armstrong tried to resist Hwoarang's shoving.

"They'll kill both of us. He wants you dead, not just me necessarily." Armstrong pleaded.

"Just watch me." Hwoarang said, shoving the gun barrel deeper into Armstrong's side.

Armstrong grabbed the knob and opened the door. The two slowly pushed their way out into the hall. Hwoarang noticed Stanson's lifeless body was still lying on the floor face down. He looked away from it.

"Now. We can talk about the matter at hand?" Mabinko asked.

"Yes." Hwoarang said.

Hwoarang looked around, checking the two staircases next to him. His eyes darted to the right, seeing the open exit path behind Mabinko. Then he looked to his left, his eyes falling on the man aiming his gun at him from the staircase. He didn't even realize that the man had an open shot on him under the tranquilizer dart hit him in the arm. He turned to look at Mabinko, who was raising his gun to Armstrong's face.

How could he be so stupid? His plan was never to barter for safe passage, but to use Armstrong as a human shield while he killed everybody else in sight. It seemed like a decent idea based on the situation.

Armstrong screamed as Mabinko fired, his face exploding not more than a second later. It all moved so slow to Hwoarang, almost like an art film, albeit a bit sick and twisted. Armstrong's brain matter splashed against the wall as Hwoarang felt himself falling to the floor, his arm letting go of Armstrong's lifeless body.

His body rolled over onto his back, his eyes staring at the ceiling. Mabinko towered over him. He gazed down at him, smiling. The world then went black.

3:55:24 – "Amtrak Train #44: The Blue Water, to Chicago, is now arriving on Track 3." The announcer said over the loud speaker.

Jin sat outside the station on a small bench. There were two other people nearby, waiting for the same train.

The ticket was for first class. He stared at the envelope again. It wasn't held for "Jin" or "Jin Kazama" but "Mr. Kazama". He knew it was probably nothing, but something about it bugged him. It made him wonder who exactly was on the train.

The train whistle bellowed in the distance, the locomotive rushing into the station. Jin stood up and walked towards the end of the platform just in front of the tracks. The train began to brake, coming to a stop a few moments later. One of the doors stopped directly in front of Jin.

He pulled the ticket out of the envelope as the doors opened, a conductor standing at the top of the small staircase.

"This is first class only, do you have a ticket?" he said.

Jin walked up, handing him the ticket. The conductor looked at the ticket, handed it back to him, and then pointed off to the right.

"You're just in the next car after this, Mr. Kazama. Thank you for riding Amtrak." He said.

There it was again, he though. "Mr. Kazama." It kind of felt eerie hearing that again. He moved through the door to the first car, wondering who the hell he was meeting on here, if anybody. He crossed through the next bridge between the cars, and into the one marked on the ticket.

The car was empty, except for one person. A woman. Her back was turned to him, as she was putting a bag into the overhead storage compartment. She was petite, and Asian, when he realized her hair was as black as it was. It was long, tied up neatly into a ponytail. She was wearing a tight gray suit with a pink dress shirt underneath. It definitely showed off her amazing figure.

He walked up behind her, as she was in the same section that he was.

"Excuse me, Miss." He said, trying to shuffle past her.

She only turned around, blocking his path.

"Jin. Right on time." She said.

He couldn't believe he didn't recognize her. She certainly didn't look like she had been hurt. In fact, she was stunning, even at this time of the morning.

"Ling." He said, nearly speechless.

3:59:57…

3:59:58…

3:59:59…

4:00:00…


	11. 4:00 am 5:00 am

Tekken 24: Day Two

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

The following takes place between 4:00 am and 5:00 am.

Events occur in real time.

4:00:00 – The lights were still on inside the front office of the warehouse.

Ko Yon-ha looked a little further into the office, seeing the body lying near the doorway into the garage. He was confident that nobody was there. Even if there was, he was still too cocky to think that he'd get the drop on whoever might be inside.

He may have been cocky, but he surely wasn't stupid. Ko still had his gun out.

The light in the office flickered and buzzed momentarily as he crossed to the doorway. He pushed himself up against the wall and quickly peeked inside the garage. The only person he spotted was that of a man who lay on one side of the room, probably dead. The computer had gone back into its screen saver. He entered the garage towards the computer. The closer he got to the man on the ground the more twisted his neck looked in the dim lighting. The man was dead.

He set the gun down on the desk and tapped the computer awake. It came up onto the desktop. He opened up a DOS prompt and typed in a command, bringing up a long list of keystrokes, commands, and programs that had been hit, entered, and opened. He noticed the email program that was opened, and delved further into that list. Once he saw the email from Amstel that had been opened he took the gun and fired three shots into the computer, aiming specifically for the hard drive.

Smoke trails started to billow out from the tower. Happy with the result, he walked back towards the office. The man lying in the office, who was supposed to be dead, started to gurgle blood out of his mouth onto the floor. Ko stopped in front of him, staring at him. The man turned his head. He could see Ko watching him. He struggled to raise his hand, brushing his fingers against Ko's pant leg.

Ko smiled, enjoying the show as the man fought to plead for help. Blood continued to seep out of the corner of the man's mouth, pooling onto the floor. Ko kneeled down, bringing himself closer to the man who would more than likely die within the next few minutes.

"Please…" the man said, the sound garbled by the blood in his mouth.

Ko stood up, and raised his foot, hovering it directly over the man's neck. Ko hesitated for a second before finally bring his foot down, crushing the man's neck and larynx. A massive wave of blood rushed out of the man's mouth. Ko quickly got his foot off before the blood hit his shoe. He was thankful nothing got on them. They weren't cheap.

4:04:27 – The rear doors of the van opened up. A big burley man carried Hwoarang over one shoulder, and promptly threw him into the back of the empty van. Hwoarang was still unconscious, the landing not stirring him at all.

The man shut the doors to the van just as Mabinko came walking out of the apartment building.

Amber Lamont sat in the front passenger seat of the van. When the body hit the floor of the van, she turned to catch a glimpse, thinking it was Armstrong. But upon seeing the orange-red hair, she knew who it was. She didn't need confirmation from anyone.

She turned around, wondering where exactly within the past year that she decided to just throw caution to the wind and move ahead as freelance doctor working without a license. Mabinko had contacted her earlier in the day, and asked her to meet him here in the area. This was the second freelance job she had ever taken, and yet again, it was with a known criminal. The first time she worked with him was in Malaysia, and she would rather prefer to forget what happened. She'd never seen something so brutal. God only knows why she agreed to come back to this. She turned back again to look at Hwoarang. She felt sorry for what she was going to probably have to do to him.

The driver's side door opened, and she quickly turned back around as Mabinko slid into the seat. He threw the key into the ignition and started the van.

"Did you have any luck up there?" She asked.

She wasn't afraid of him. She really didn't consider it fear. She was cautious. Mabinko had a habit of randomly killing people who worked for him. This was the second time she had worked with him on a job. Her role here was to originally medicate Armstrong in order to find out if he had been compromised, and then to kill him.

"Armstrong's dead." Mabinko said.

"Then who's that in the back?" She asked, know full well of Hwoarang's history.

"An insurance policy. He's going to get to the server for us."

"How? Armstrong is the only one who had access. Did you get the hard drive from his computer?"

"He incinerated it. We need to get the server earlier than planned." Mabinko said.

Amber stared at him for a moment before she realized what he meant.

"We're going to the airport now?" she asked.

"Yes. We should be there around sunrise." He said, taking a quick look back at Hwoarang, still lying unconscious on the floorboard.

4:08:14 – Jin's thought process had halted, and had remained that way since he saw her.

It had been a while, but Ling looked amazing.

She was being patient. They both sat across from each other on the first class seats, the soft, cushioned feeling of the seats not lasting for more than a few moments.

They hadn't even said a word. She figured this would happen. Jin was in shock. She smiled at him, waiting for him to say something.

"I don't understand," he finally asked.

She smiled again, more sincerely, before finally going back to a straight face. She was happy to see him, but the joy would have to wait.

"I expected that. That's why I'm here. Things have been getting out of control." She said.

"Yeah. Just a bit," he replied somewhat sarcastically.

"Blane called and told me that you escaped from CTU custody and we're looking for me. I take it you found the footage at the movie theatre?"

"Yeah. I can't believe you embraced that bastard." He said.

She sighed. "Things changed radically between then and now. At eight o'clock, I was under the impression that Ko was apart of my team. I met him there at the theatre because he had information regarding Amstel coming back into the States. The information he gave eventually checked out, though I didn't realize he was double-crossing me until recently. And we're talking hours too."

"You trusted him? How?"

"My entire team is made up of mercenaries from around the world. We're a black ops team. I have the authority to hire anyone I choose. And Ko's skills at sharp shooting fit the requirements. As long as he took orders, did his job, and produced results, I was willing to overlook his personality."

"So how did you find out he wasn't working for you?" he asked bluntly.

Jin didn't like the answers he was hearing. All this time he had been on a wild goose chase that Ling could have easily stopped. It wasn't until he had killed a friend, put his life on the line, and finally just about gave up on it all that she decided to pull back the curtain and reveal herself.

"About one o'clock. He was supposed to check in around eleven, missed it, and had been off the grid since. I had satellite coverage of Michael Foster's home, since he was my first contact into all of this, and witnessed Ko killing him." She said.

"So then what are we doing here? Ko's probably still back in Peoria." Jin said.

She shook her head.

"He's going to be heading to Chicago soon enough. There's a bigger plot here than you realize. Since Ko's working for Amstel, we've got a big problem. Our operating procedure's been blow, seeing as Ko knew it all. He's been working with us for months. Approximately thirty hours ago, I was in Japan, tracking down Amstel. I received word that a hydrogen bomb has gone missing inside of the US. After that, all of my informants disappeared, except for one. He was able to tell me one thing before a sniper killed him." She said.

"What was it?"

"He told me that Amstel was heading to the Midwest United States today."

"Amstel's coming here?"

"Yes. I believe he's going to detonate this bomb in Chicago. It would certainly get the world's attention. Which I think he wants after our foray in Tokyo earlier this year."

Jin blinked. He didn't ever think of how big the stakes were. In fact, he was still under the impression that this was just a revenge quest, and that all Amstel or whoever was behind it, just wanted him dead.

Jin sighed again. "Look. I realize what's at stake. But why didn't you tell me earlier? I shot one of my friends tonight because I was being held hostage. Why not come forward?"

Ling rubbed her face with her hands. The wear of the night was getting to her.

"Jin, I didn't tell you, or pull you out, or save you from all of it because I didn't know where Ko was. I needed an advantage. And coming out of nowhere and revealing myself would just keep him one step ahead. You do know what a tactical advantage is, right?" she said, almost saddened by Jin's lack of understanding.

"I guess not," Jin said, getting up and heading towards the aisle. "I'm sorry."

"Jin." Ling said.

He had only walked five feet away from her when she called out to him. He didn't stop. Jin moved onto the dining car, hoping to clear his head from this mess.

4:14:52 – Sam hung up the phone. She was worried and frustrated at the lack of communication inside the base. Currently, it was only her and Urahara, who almost looked like he was about to leave himself.

"Still no answer from Stanson or Hwoarang." She called out to Urahara from across the floor.

"Anything on the emergency channels?" he asked.

"I don't even think they knew about them." She answered.

"Activate the transmitters." He said.

The transmitters were the very same transmitters that CTU had implanted in Jin and Hwoarang months earlier. One of the activation workstations was located in Jin's home – the very same one Le Carre and Stanson came across earlier that evening.

"The large display monitor on the wall in front of them lit up. A display of the state of Illinois appeared in black, with green lines tracing all the major roadways in the state. Some major cities were marked, including Peoria, Chicago, Springfield, Bloomington, and a few others farther downstate.

"They should be coming up momentarily." Sam said.

One yellow blip came on the screen, moving towards northbound I-55 on its way to Chicago. It was probably thirty miles outside of the city.

"Jin's beacon is up." She said.

"Where's Hwoarang?" Urahara asked.

"It's deactivated. Probably destroyed. The last recorded position was before midnight." She said.

"Damn. Max must have gotten it when he grabbed Hwoarang." He said, picking up the phone in front of him.

The line rang a few times before the other end picked up.

"Yeah?" Alex said.

"It's me. What's your location?"

"On Adams, heading back to the base." Alex said.

"Get over the location Sam's sending to your PDA. I think Hwoarang and Stanson are in trouble. I'm going to get CTU to send a backup team to meet you there." Urahara said.

"Ok. Did you talk to anyone about the email yet? We need to find out what's on that server." Alex said.

"I'm working on it. I've got to pull some strings in order to get clearance. When Sam went to look it up, it shut her down. It's locked. It might be a government server."

"What would be on it?"

"Who knows? It could have anything." Urahara said.

"Ok. I'm less than ten minutes out. Get that backup there." Alex said.

"I'm on it." Urahara said, hanging up and dialing again in one fluid motion.

4:17:38 – The van rolled into the parking lot of Mt. Hawley Airport. The place in itself shouldn't even been considered such, as it only had one runway, and was small enough that the biggest plane it could carry was a mid-sized private jet, which at the moment, was being prepped for takeoff.

Mabinko drove at moderate speed, bringing the vehicle near the plane. The engines were warming up, and a gust of air pressed against the door as he tried to exit.

Another vehicle pulled up behind him. As soon as it stopped, five men got out of the car, all armed. Mabinko stared at the driver.

"Get Hwoarang on the plane," he said, then turning to Amber, who was standing outside the van now. "Keep him somewhat lucid."

Amber moved toward the back of the van where one of the other men opened the doors. Inside, Hwoarang was stirring, turning from his side to his back. Amber opened the bag she had around one shoulder and pulled out a syringe. She hopped inside and quickly inserted the clear liquid inside into his neck. Hwoarang groaned painfully as his arms stopped moving. The man outside looked suspicious.

"He's not dead. Just sedated. I'll have to hit him again in about thirty minutes." She said.

The guard grabbed Hwoarang by the ankles, pulling him to the edge of the truck, giving him just enough leverage to throw him over his shoulder. He started walking to the plane then, just behind Amber.

The stairwell door to the plane opened up, the pilot appearing just for a split second before moving back into the cockpit.

The man carried Hwoarang up the stairs, Amber guiding him along to where they would keep him. She had obviously been on board before.

The plane was larger than it looked. The front half of the plane was made up of the cockpit, a small storage cabin for the steward's to use, followed by a bathroom. The rest of the plane was made up by a main cabin area, made up of luxury chairs and round wooden tables. The back end of the plane was for luggage and a preparation area for the stewards.

Amber began to walk into the back of the plane, and pointed towards the front.

"Put him in the storage room." She said.

The man walked up towards the front of the plane, the doorway to the storage room directly across from the doorway to the cockpit. The man opened the storage room door and flipped on the light. While still standing in the doorway, he tossed Hwoarang over his shoulder and hard onto the ground. The man flipped off the light, and closed the door.

A small groan escaped from his mouth. His fingers began to twitch.

4:24:29 – Alex's car buzzed into the lot of the apartment complex. He drove around the building once, noticing Stanson's car was still in the lot, as well as a couple others.

He parked the car, and reached into the back seat, pulling open the false bottom. Inside was an M4 assault rifle that had been customized over the past couple years: A telescopic sight, customized hand guard, dual ammo clips, laser sight, silencer – the works. Alex had put a lot of money into his weapons, and this really showed that.

Alex quickly slipped off his jacket, grabbing the Kevlar vest next to his M4. He slipped it on and fastened the straps, looking behind him at the building, making sure nobody was sneaking up on him. Once finished, he grabbed the rifle, extra ammo, and a communications unit. He turned a small dial, setting it to an emergency frequency that would immediately broadcast inside the base, and flipped the device on as he put it in his ear.

"This is Alex, does anyone copy?" he said.

At first there was only static, which he expected. The sound of his voice was probably enough to send them into a state of shock, certainly not expecting him to sound off like that.

"Alex. We read you." Urahara said, coming in loud and clear through the earpiece.

"I'm at the apartment complex. I'm going in." he said.

He got out of the car, the rifle already mounted at his right shoulder, and aimed, ready to take out anything that got in his way.

He swiftly ran to the front of the building. Almost like a bullet itself, he moved in such a controlled way – his arms didn't shake with nervousness; his body didn't bounce like most others.

He hugged the wall next the front door.

"I'm entering the front of the building." He said, counting mentally to three.

He pulled open the door slowly, trying to keep the bell attached to the door from ringing. He swung the gun in front of him, moving to the left and right, trying to get a peek around any upcoming corner that someone could hide in.

The first floor hall was empty other wise. Beyond it was four different doors, all what appeared to be apartments. At the end was a stairwell leading upstairs. He moved forward into the hall and caught the staircase beside him out of the corner of his eye.

He aimed the rifle up, seeing a landing directly above him. What he saw from there shocked him. Blood was splattered all over the white wall next to it, a small trickle off blood running to the edge and dripping onto the floor below. He quickly ran upstairs, seeing Stanson's body lying face down.

"Jesus." He said.

"What is it?" Urahara asked.

"It's Stanson. He's dead." Alex said, almost blankly.

Alex then noticed the door to Armstrong's apartment had been busted off its hinges. He raised the rifle again, running into the apartment, clearing it in record time. The whole apartment had been ransacked. He finished with the bedroom, Armstrong's computer lying in pieces across the bed. The hard drive was missing.

"Armstrong's apartment has been ransacked. The hard drive is missing from his computer. There's nobody here." He said.

"Hwoarang must have been taken then." Urahara said.

Alex started to walk back towards his car.

"So what now? Did you find anything about the server in Iowa?" He asked.

"No. Everyone's tight-lipped. But I figured that if we know, so does anyone that worked with Armstrong. I started searching local airports and other airfields for any planes that may have stopped or taken off from here and heading to Iowa. I came up with seven planes. Five took off in Peoria and surrounding areas, heading into Des Monies for layovers, one was heading from here to Cedar Rapids, but one just took off from Mt. Hawley airport. It's heading to a small grass runway in Amana, Iowa." Urahara said.

Alex skipped down the main staircase and out the front door.

"That airport should be closed."

"It was. I called, and the manager said that he opened back up for one takeoff. It was a private jet that needed to get out quickly from a small airport like his." Urahara said.

"Did he give an arrival time?" Alex asked, opening the back door, placing the M4 back in it's hiding place.

"Yeah. It's due to land shortly before 6 A.M. Why? You got something in mind?"

Alex shut the back door and opened up the trunk. Inside were four full tanks of Nitrous Oxide. Most people knew that he treated his weapons like his children, but almost nobody knew that he treated his car the same way too. His secret weapon was having legally disabled the device inside the car's computer that capped the top speed of the car. The normal top speed he would have had had he bought it new would have been around 110 MPH, but this way he could easily get near 150 MPH. With the nitrous, he could push just over 200 MPH. He had no clue if he would make it. At this rate, it would be around a 100-minute drive. He slammed the trunk down. He'd made his decision.

"Yeah. I'm driving there. Upload directions to the screen in my car. I'm going after it." He said, hoping into the front seat of the car.

4:30:44 – The ice was melting inside the glass of whiskey. Jin had been nursing it for a few minutes now.

He really didn't know what to think anymore. He was tired, he had been used, and now he was staring out of a window, watching the dark pastures beyond speed pass.

He understood why Ling never helped him earlier in the evening. But he still felt like somebody had balled him up like a piece of paper waiting to be thrown away. None of it felt right, and yet he didn't blame Ling for her choice, he wasn't about to forgive her for it.

She forced him to betray Hwoarang's trust, and at the time, the bond they had created felt right. Yet now, it felt like more of a mistake.

Jin brought the glass to his lips, downing what was left of the gold liquid that was inside the glass. He had hoped for one last burning sensation from the whiskey, something to bring fire into his head once again, but the ice had since melted, diluting it.

The bartender had since left, wrapping up for the night. He had told Jin to just leave the glass there. He looked behind the bar, noticing that the bottles had been closed up, but they were just sitting in their places behind the bar. Jin figured that they must not lock the bottles up. That's a great idea, he thought, grabbing the bottle of whiskey and setting on top of the bar.

Ling walked into the car, seeing Jin pour himself another drink. He poured enough to fill the bottom of the glass and immediately downed it. He slammed the glass back down on the bar, quickly pouring himself another.

She came up and sat beside him, grabbing the bottle. She frowned when she glanced at the label.

"You don't like whiskey?" Jin asked.

"Not my style. I'm a vodka girl." She quickly bit back.

Jin had poured a bigger amount than the last glass, and brought it up to his mouth, but stopped. He was trying to think of something witty to say. Nothing was coming to mind.

"Meh." He said.

He began to drink again, finishing the near half-glass of whiskey in one go. Even to most seasoned drinkers, this wasn't easy. In fact, it was a sign of stupidity or desperation. Or both.

Jin slammed the glass down again, Ling noticing a small crack forming at the base of the glass. Jin reached out for the bottle, but Ling grabbed it first, sliding the bottle to the other end of the bar. Jin looked at her, slightly disappointed, and slightly pissed.

"Why did you do that?" he asked.

"You've had enough."

"I'll tell you when I've had enough."

"Don't get all macho on me, Jin. Instead of drinking yourself into a stupor, why don't you work with me? I brought you hear for a reason, don't you get that?" she said.

"Don't push me." Jin said, cold. "I've been through enough shit tonight to get pushed around by a woman who decided to fuck me, leave me, which in turn forced me to betray one of my best friends." Jin said, nearly yelling.

Ling slapped him. They were both pissed. The slap forced Jin's face to turn to the side, something he didn't intend. She had gotten much stronger. His head spun from the blow.

"I loved you. I still love you. I realize that I slept with you and then vanished, but that's something I'm willing to live with. And I'm sorry about Hwoarang. I plan on talking to him once I see him and get the chance. So don't take your goddamn anger out on me!"

Jin didn't respond. He just stood there, the same cold, angered expression on his face.

"Now I'm going over the mission data in about fifteen minutes. You can sit here and drink yourself silly until then. But if you keep this attitude up, I'll have one of my guys drag you into the other car, and tie you up so we can go over everything. Understood?" she said.

"Fine. Now get out." He said, getting up to fetch the bottle of whiskey.

Ling pushed past him, quickly leaving the car.

4:36:58 – Hwoarang's ears buzzed. The first thing he was aware of was the humming noise coming from all around him. Then the pain from his head came about. It hurt like hell. He opened his eyes and yawned. His ears popped.

"Ah." He groaned.

The room was dark. He turned over onto his stomach, his hands feeling their way along the floor. The rug was rough. It felt cheap, for looks probably.

He let out a sharp sigh as he began to stand up, painfully getting on his hands and knees. He quickly pushed himself up into a kneeling position, his spine cracking in the process. He had been in lying in an awkward position for too long.

Hwoarang felt like he was drunk. The room felt like it was swaying. He rubbed his face, when the lights suddenly came on. He looked in front of him, seeing an off-white colored wall. The door to the room opened behind him, and he quickly turned around to face the door. Instead of seeing an opening door, he was met a foot to the face.

Hwoarang flew back to the ground, the shock of the blow not connecting, he stood right back up to see Mabinko stalk up to him and punch him hard in the stomach, forcing him to slide against the wall back down to the floor. He groaned as he lay back onto his side.

"You better be listening." Mabinko said.

Hwoarang grabbed his side.

"Go ahead and kill me, I don't know anything." Hwoarang hissed.

Amber walked in behind Mabinko. They both blocked the door, crowding the small room.

"I'm not killing you yet." Mabinko said.

Hwoarang eyed him, wondering exactly what he had planned.

"What do you know about internet server number 42B1?" Mabinko asked.

Hwoarang was confused.

"Huh?" he said.

"Internet server number 42B1, do you know where it is?" Mabinko asked again.

"How the hell should I know that?"

"Good," Mabinko said, "it's so nice to see you completely clueless for once."

Hwoarang scoffed. "Fuck you." He said.

"You're going to help me get a hold of that server." Mabinko said.

Hwoarang laughed, "You've got to be kidding."

"The server is in a hotel, the Holiday Inn just off of I-80 in central Iowa. It's waterproof, and it is hidden inside a small secret room inside the hotel." Mabinko said.

Central Iowa? Hwoarang wondered what the hell was so important about a secret Internet server that Mabinko felt the need to force him to get it for him. He really didn't understand. But maybe, if he complied, it would give him a chance to break away and figure something out. Provided Mabinko didn't kill him first.

"What if I refuse?" Hwoarang asked.

Mabinko smiled. He was obviously pleased by this question.

"Then I will have my men kill your precious Ling." He said, his voice oozing with malice.

4:41:23 – Victoria Glendale pressed the pedal down even closer to the floor. She had just gotten a call at CTU about twenty minutes ago about a situation up at Rave Motion Pictures.

She knew about Jin being there, and that he was in custody. But what didn't make sense was what happened on Jin's path to downtown police headquarters, which is what Glendale asked for so she could pick Jin up and take over that part of the investigation.

She could see the lights of the police and FBI in the distance of Galena Rd, or Route 29, whichever you wanted to call it. (Which wasn't too far from the apartment complex Alex had just left minutes earlier.) The paddy wagon was sitting in a ditch near the river.

Her phone rang.

"Glendale." She said.

"It's me. Are you secure?" Urahara said.

"Yeah. Go ahead." She responded.

"Michael Stanson's dead. He was killed after arriving at an apartment building on Galena. He was trying to help Hwoarang."

She sighed. "Damn. I'm on Galena now. There was a problem with getting Jin downtown." She said.

"I know. I activated a tracker that was planted on him months ago. He's moving at steady speed to what I believe is a final destination of Chicago. God only knows if it's willingly." Urahara said.

Glendale pulled over to the side of the road. She was maybe two hundred feet from the rest of the units on the scene.

"Jin is not in Peoria?" she asked, confused, but concerned.

"No. Based on direction of travel and speed, he's got to be on a train." Urahara said.

"So what do you suggest we do? Because he obviously got help from somebody." Glendale said.

"I'm not sure. But at this rate, I've been talking to my bosses and I came up with our only plan of action."

"Which is?" she asked.

"Going to Chicago. We get to Union Station, which is probably where the train is stopping at. We can start a search from there." He said.

"Well, if you're going there, I'm going with you." She said.

"That's why I was calling to begin with. I will need somebody to introduce me to the CTU officials up there." Urahara said.

"Well, let me track this lead down on Officer Blane. We might be able to figure out what happen to Jin that way. It will help to know if he's just wandering around or if somebody is actually forcing him to do things up there." She said.

"I agree. We can meet up at the Greater Peoria Regional Airport. I'll flag a plane and get a flight plan down." He said.

"Good. I'll be there within the next thirty minutes. If I'm any longer I'll let you know." She said, hanging up.

She sighed. She didn't understand exactly what all was going on. With a hydrogen bomb on the loose in the region, she felt that all the activity that was going on was too small, even if it was nearly five in the morning.

She got out of the car, and began to walk over to the small crowding of agents and police surrounding the paddy wagon.

4:46:11 – Hwoarang wasn't sure what he could do. He didn't know the area. It had taken him about five minutes after Mabinko approached him to realize all he could do was wait.

He had been sitting up against the wall since then. He brought his legs up, resting his arms on his knees. All he could do was sit and plan. Which he did, running through every scenario he could imagine.

There was the reckless move of just busting out of the room, hopefully subduing the first guard he came across, taking their gun and overtaking the plane without bringing it down. It was the only way to start off his plan of escape.

Frustrated, he sighed and slid down, leaning over onto his side, still up against the wall. He lightly banged his head against the floor. The floor beneath him clanged hollow, which wasn't normal.

Not exactly sure he heard what he heard, he knocked on the floor in front of him. It was solid. Still confused, he raised his head (while still in the same position, his arm stretched out in front of him, roughly one inch above the floor), and hit the floor a little bit harder. It clanged hollow again. There was something there.

Hwoarang sat up, looking at that section of floor, and started to feel around the carpet. He came across two small slits in the carpet, which when he tried to pick at, revealed a deep crevice. It was a door. He tried to pull back the carpet, which gave in easily. Underneath was a latch, which was labeled "Luggage Deck".

Hwoarang smiled. Maybe there was an easier way to get out of here.

The door to the room unlocked, and in a panic, Hwoarang laid down and closed his eyes, pretending he was unconscious.

Amber walked through the door, carrying a syringe filled with a near transparent liquid in it. She quietly closed the door after walking in, and quickly knelt down next to Hwoarang. She brought the tip of the needle closer to Hwoarang's next when he suddenly opened his eyes and stared at her. She gasped, giving him enough time to push the needle away from him. He then used a free hand to grab her by the next, and used the momentum to stand up and shove her against the wall. She struggled to free the hand holding the syringe, but it was clamped to the wall by Hwoarang's other hand. It wasn't going anywhere.

She tried to let out a small yelp, but the pressure on her neck was nearly cutting off any air, which in turn, cut off her ability to scream. Hwoarang looked at her with a cold, psychotic stare. She was horrified that he would crush her larynx with his hand.

"If you scream, you will die. I am going to let you breathe. Do you understand me?" He muttered.

His grip on her neck loosened a little bit, but it was just enough to let her breathe again.

"Y-y-yes." Her voice shakily answered.

"Good. Now, what is in the syringe?" he asked.

"A sedative. It's mild. I'm supposed to keep you unconscious, but lucid. Asleep." She said.

"Drop the syringe from you hand, and onto the floor." He said.

Amber did as she was asked. The needle dropped from her hand and bounced onto the floor next to Hwoarang's shoe.

"Is everything Mabinko said true? What's on the server?" he asked.

"Yes. We're landing in Iowa in roughly an hour. I'm not sure what's on the server, but Mabinko knows. He's been talking to another. A Korean, like you." She said, her voice still shaking slightly.

"Ko." he said, pausing. "Good. Does Mabinko know where the server is in the hotel?"

"No. At least I don't think so." She said.

Hwoarang didn't speak for a moment, the information processing. Then suddenly he head-butted her, knocking her unconscious. He held her and softly laid her onto the floor. He grabbed the syringe and pushed in the bottom of it, the liquid shooting out onto the floor.

He turned around and uncovered the hatch to the luggage area of the plane. The lock didn't look too complex. There was a red handle that sat in the lock position in one corner, imprinted into the door. A turn of about forty-five degrees would unlock it. There was a larger handle, in the shape of a small cube, also imprinted into the door. A wide arc held the cube in place, a red bar coloring the rest of the arc.

Hwoarang pulled the lock open, and then moved the cube from one side of the arc to the other, the door releasing a small hiss as it opened. He looked inside, checking for anybody that might be able to surprise him. Satisfied, he jumped inside, closing the door afterwards.

4:51:20 – Jin walked into the seating car he had left previously. The car was completely empty of occupants, except for Ling, and three other men who sat in random positions throughout the car. One sat in the front of the car, another in the rear, and the last one near Ling.

He walked over to her and sat directly across from her. She let out a deep breath, which almost sounded like a sigh of relief to him.

"I was almost about to send somebody in to get you." She said.

He crossed his legs, trying to act suave enough to counter her appearance.

"It's not necessary. I just didn't want to look unprofessional. So, tell me what you'd like me to do." He said, trying to be as cold and uncaring as possible.

Ling was thrown off by his line, but not completely. She really didn't see it coming, but she could see through it. He was unhappy with it all. But he was willing to look past it for the time and push forward for the greater good. She almost wanted to smile at him, but didn't in order to hide her weakness.

"We want you to break into the Mishima Zaibatsu Headquarters in Chicago. We believe that there's a lead to the bomb inside the corporate records located on the hard drive of the CEO there. He's been there all night." Ling said.

Jin didn't respond. The look between them was like a game of poker, two people, both with major weaknesses for each other, not showing emotion because they both wanted to be on top and in control. It was only a matter of who would give in first.

"Fine. But I want something in return." He said.

Ling didn't even blink.

"What would that be?" she asked.

"I want my identity to be erased. I want a new identity that will be kept classified top secret. I want to be relocated to a destination of my choosing. I want to have no contact with people from my previous life." He said.

Ling swallowed hard, her face still nearly expressionless.

"Deal." She said after a pause.

"Good. Let's get down to business." Jin said.

4:55:55 – Hwoarang had stealthily sneaked through the bottom floor of the plane. Granted, it was small, seeing as it only stored luggage.

The floor was made up of four big plastic crates, complete with zipper doors. There were two small little halls that separated them, leaving one crate on each side if somebody were to want to look through them. On the far end from where Hwoarang entered was a small staircase with a door at the top of the stairs. At the other end was a closed door that led into a slightly bigger room, made up completely of avionics equipment and the wiring to the plane. When he first saw the room moments ago, a smile had come to his face. He had a plan.

Hwoarang walked into the room, quickly referring back to his training in the army. He had taken the time to understand how a plane worked. Yeah it was required, but his curiosity is what drove him. He could never really understand why completely, but now he was thankful he did.

He quickly found the one box on the wall he needed, and moved to it. He opened up the door and noticed a complicated, entangled mess of wires of many different colors. He took a deep breath and began to look around the floor, searching for a toolbox. He found one conveniently placed by the door to the room. He opened it up and found the sort of tool he was looking for on top: a box cutter. He grabbed it and walked back over to the box.

He quickly organized himself and figured out what wire did what, seeing labels etched into the metal next to each wire. He found the one labeled "Fuel Control" and cut it. He then looked for the next wire he needed, which would disperse the fuel from the plane.

Hwoarang thought about how having escaped to a different part of the plane would endanger Ling's life. But after her earlier stunt with Jin, he almost didn't care anymore. He wanted off the plane, and damn it, he was getting off.

He was going to force the plane to the ground.

4:59:57…

4:59:58…

4:59:59…

5:00:00…


	12. 5:00 am 6:00 am

20

Tekken 24: Day Two – Chapter 11

Disclaimer – I don't own "24", "Tekken", or any other actual businesses named in this story.

The following takes place between 5:00 am and 6:00 am.

Events occur in real time.

5:00:00 – The first wire sparked as Hwoarang cut it apart with the box cutter he found in the tool chest.

That wire was marked "fuel control". All he needed was another system he could merge it with, hoping it would do something to the plane besides blow it up.

After a moment of going through all the different systems, he came across a set of wires labeled "avionics". He made up his mind, swallowing a lump down his throat. He grabbed the set of wires, and cut only one of them, quickly combining that wire, and the lone fuel control wire. The two wires sparked once, before a small buzzer when off inside the wall behind the wiring.

"God, I hope that works." Hwoarang said, taking a deep breath.

He realized then and there that somebody would probably be down here soon, trying to fix his obvious sabotage.

5:02:54 – Zesiro Mabinko yawned. He hadn't slept in nearly thirty-six hours. The co-pilot's seat was thankfully stiff enough to keep him awake.

Sleep was important to him. But so was the payoff he was about to receive later this evening. So sleep could just wait for a while. A little sleep deprivation was worth $30 million, even if his brother was dead. Though he already had more than enough revenge for that. The little shit in the back room was just the cherry on top of everything.

Outside the cockpit window, the sky was starting to lighten, a sign of the sun starting to rise. At this rate, the sun would be up around the same time they would be landing in Iowa.

Mabinko started to let his eyes close, beginning to drift into stage one sleep when a buzzer sounded, immediately jolting him awake. He looked at the board in front of him, trying to figure the source of the noise. He quickly looked over at the pilot, who was even more perplexed than he was.

"What is it?" Mabinko asked, concerned.

"We're losing fuel." The pilot responded.

"How? Did we hit something?"

"No. It's not damage; we are physically dumping the fuel out of the tail end of the plane. Some of my systems aren't responding too. It's got to be a problem down below. I have to check the wiring." The pilot said, setting the plane on autopilot before getting out of his seat.

Mabinko stood up, suspicious. He stopped the pilot, pointing him back into his seat. His eyes were burning a hole through the cockpit door and into the makeshift holding room where he was keeping Hwoarang.

"Stay here." Mabinko said, pulling out his gun, and still not taking his eyes off the door in front of him.

The pilot only nodded. Mabinko didn't see it and didn't care. He hesitantly approached the cockpit door, before he quickly opened it, somehow expecting Hwoarang to come bursting in. Nothing happened.

He made his way into the hall, looking around the corner into the main cabin. He could still see his men sitting at a table playing cards, drinking coffee, and quietly joking, keeping themselves awake.

He raised his gun at the center of the door, his other hand slowly opening it. He counted to three, and then swiftly opened the door. Inside, the lights were on, and Hwoarang wasn't there. He noticed the carpet had been torn up, and the emergency door sitting in the floor.

"Son of a bitch." He swore under his breath.

He turned around to see Amber lying on the floor, starting to come to. Her nose was bloodied. Hwoarang must have punched her or head-butted her. Pathetic. He walked out of the room, and hurried on into the main cabin.

"He's loose, below deck. Go!" Mabinko yelled out.

The men looked at him for a moment, slightly startled, but quickly snapped into position, running into the back of the plane to head below deck.

5:07:49 – How long was this train ride going to be?

Jin sighed as he sat in his seat. Ling had left with her group shortly after he made his demands. Her phone had gone off and she ran off with the rest of the group in tow. For all he knew, they were all gone for good.

Suddenly, a hand presented a cup of coffee to his face. He looked up to see one of the friendlier faces in Ling's group of men. Jin took the cup. The man proceeded to sit down across from him. Damn he looked young. Jin figured he couldn't be more than nineteen.

"Thanks." Jin said.

"You know she cares about you, right?" he said.

Jin chuckled, then paused. He wasn't about to talk about this.

"How about a name first?" he said finally.

"Gabriel."

"Gabriel." Jin said, repeating the name. "So what do you do for her?"

"I'm a hacker. Though I have known to dabble in weapons. I'm no expert, but I know my stuff." He said.

Jin looked at him with a calm face. He didn't know what Ling was about to get him into, but he was quite frankly sick of it. So it may have been only six months, but he wasn't one who enjoyed hiding. He just wanted to live his life without being hunted by somebody every ten minutes. It seemed like everybody wanted him for something, whether it was the Devil Gene in his blood or just because it's Jin Kazama. Fuck them. No more.

"Why did Ling run off?" Jin asked.

Gabriel looked up, past Jin's head. Jin turned around to see Ling standing in the aisle, leaning up against his chair.

"What's up?" Jin asked.

"We have to go over the mission details sooner than I expected." She said, motioning for Gabriel to leave. As he stood up, she took his seat.

"Nothing you can't handle, I'm sure." Jin said, a stern tone in his voice.

"Shut up." She said. "I got word from my inside man that the deal that you were to infiltrate at 8:30 this morning was sped up to somewhere around 6:45. We need to get to Chicago fast."

Jin chuckled. He should have seen this coming. Nothing ever ends the way you think it should.

"So what am I doing? And what is this 'deal' that I'm supposed to see?" Jin asked.

"The deal is between the acting director of the United States Branch of the Mishima Zaibatsu and a former member of the Russian KGB, who unofficially happens to be working for, and outside the authority of, the current Russian Government. We believe that he is paying off the Zaibatsu for acquiring the hydrogen bomb that's going to be detonated. We need you there to try and figure out where the bomb is. But I can't guarantee your safety. The timetable wasn't set up like this." Ling said, a certain level of alarm in her voice.

She was worried. He could sense it. But was it for the mission, the fact that they might not find the bomb in time, because he might get killed here, because she was over her head, or all of it?

The train conductor came on over the loudspeaker.

"Attention Amtrak customers, we are sorry to inform you that this train has been rerouted to Chicago's Union Station. We apologize for the inconvenience, and would like to let you know that we will have trains at the station to take you to your destination as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation, and thank you for riding Amtrak."

Jin continued as soon as the announcement ended.

"So what's the plan? How am I getting in?" Jin asked.

Ling stared straight at him. She had quickly recomposed herself during the conductor's announcement.

"We have a meeting on the books for you at 6:30. I'm having Gabriel log it into their system as we speak." She said.

"How long is going to take us to get into Chicago?" Jin asked.

The train began to speed up. Even with such a big train, the change in speed was obvious.

Ling smiled smugly. "At this rate – thirty minutes."

5:13:14 – Urahara stood inside the slightly empty terminal of the Greater Peoria Regional Airport. Two hours ago, it would have been nearly silent, but now the number of people in the terminal was growing. There were flights to Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati due to leave within the hour.

He was waiting on Glendale. Urahara looked at his watch. She should have been here by now. Somebody suddenly tapped him on the back of his shoulder. He spun around to see Glendale standing there.

"Urahara?" she asked.

"Glendale." He said, extending his hand.

She took his hand and shook it firmly. He was impressed. Female hands, regardless of personality were usually softer and a tad more gentle.

"It's good to finally put a face to the voice." She said.

"The same. I asked the airport to lend us a helicopter. They agreed, although reluctantly." He said.

"Well, I've contacted CTU in Chicago and we've set up a perimeter. They've got the new cameras set up against the highways and Lake Shore Drive and Congress St. set up."

"What about the rest of the city? How are they watching it?" he asked.

"Department of Homeland Security has been informed of the situation. Secretary Heller told them, and now we've got FBI, some CIA, and DEA roaming the streets for anything out of the ordinary. DHS is wondering how we should bring Chicago Police into this without allowing for any leaks to the press."

"That's going to be impossible. With a neutron bomb in the city, jail time and job loss will be a small price to pay in order to let the rest of the city know. We can't bring Chicago Police into this until we know we need the extra manpower. That'll be sometime this morning I expect." he said.

"Well, we should be in Chicago within the next hour." She said.

The two started walking towards the doors at the gate. Given the floor they were on, it allowed them to walk directly onto the runway. Outside, a small helicopter stood on the tarmac, the pilot staring it up.

"What did you find on Blane?" he asked.

"It was a well-established cover. Blane doesn't even exist. I talked to the Chief of Police, and it went on down the line. That's what was taking me so long. I had a team go to Blane's apartment."

"What did you find?" he asked.

"Nothing. An empty apartment." She said.

"Then Jin must be with him. I wonder how he fits into this?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I just hope he isn't delivering the key to the bomb to Amstel's men." She said.

Urahara sighed as he opened the door to the helicopter, scooting in so Glendale could enter. He grabbed the headset hanging behind him. He put them on, flipping the switch on the left speaker to turn it on. The pilot immediately turned his head around the seat, looking at him.

"Where are we heading to in Chicago?" the pilot asked.

"We'll tell you once we're close to the city." Urahara answered.

Glendale closed the door to the helicopter and locked it. She then threw on her headset and powered it on.

"Glendale, switch to channel 4." Urahara said.

She nodded and flipped the small knob on the right side of her headset.

"Good. The pilot won't hear us." He said.

"If they have the key to the bomb, they'll detonate it before we even land in Chicago. Besides, my guess is that it might be in Iowa. I can leave that up to Alex and Hwoarang, if he's still alive. My biggest concern right now is finding the bomb. Because if they tried, they could probably find a way around everything and still detonate it." Urahara continued.

"How would they?" she asked.

"Sacrifice. You have one man willing to die for the cause, he is left behind, and he does what's necessary to blow the damn thing up." He said.

"A suicide bomber with a nuclear bomb strapped to his chest. I can't believe what this is coming down to." She said.

"Believe it. I've lived it most of my life." He said.

5:20:15 – The walkway on the underside of the plane was quickly filling with the extra guards that Mabinko had ordered down inside.

The door to the electronics room that Hwoarang was in was closed.

Inside, he stared at the wiring board in front of him. He was pretty sure he had crossed the right wires. If he was correct, the plane should have been dumping flew for the past ten minutes.

He hoped that it was enough to ground the plane before its destination. What the hell would they want him to do in Iowa of all places?

He didn't know basic procedure well enough, but whatever was there, his diversion would give Alex and everyone else enough time to play catch up.

"Hwoarang." Mabinko chimed in over a loud speaker.

Hwoarang shut the door to the box and turned around, his focus on the ceiling. He had a feeling that they would just barge in and shoot him, though he wasn't surprised that they didn't. But this wasn't expected.

"I know you're messing with the fuel. My men are directly outside that room. Give yourself up now, and maybe I won't have Ling killed." He said.

Hwoarang chuckled. How many times had he heard that one before? Besides, he figured it highly unlikely that Mabinko had Ling, or even access to her.

"There's a phone on the wall by the door. Pick it up if you want to answer." He continued.

Hwoarang walked over there and grabbed the phone.

"You don't have her, and I'm going to guess that you never did." Hwoarang said.

"You aren't in the position to guess. Now undo what changes to the wiring you made, and give yourself up. Unless you want me to kill her?"

Hwoarang laughed. "She's not even on this plane. That's the lamest bluff I've heard in years."

"I never said she was on board. But I do have access to her. By phone, of course. And now that I think of it, just go ahead and give yourself up. We will fix your damage. You have thirty seconds, or I make that call." Mabinko said, hanging up.

"Dammit!" he said, throwing the phone against the wall.

Hwoarang immediately ran his hands through his hair; mad at how quickly he was thrown back in the corner. Why did he have to care about her so much? He couldn't take the chance, knowing she could really be dead if he didn't come out. But even then, they would just come in for him anyways.

He ran his hands across his face, his fingertips stopping at the bridge of his nose. There was only one way out of this. He had to give himself up.

Fuck it.

Hwoarang walked to the door, opened it, and started to walk out into the hallway. The guards immediately stiffed up, almost expecting him to do something erratic.

He raised his hands and walked slowly. One of the guards got up from the group. His gun was still raised and aimed while he approached him.

"Get on your knees, hands behind you head." The guard said.

Hwoarang got down on his knees, doing exactly as he was told. The guard circled around him, and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

5:23:26 – Jin closed the door to the bathroom and reentered the compartment he left Ling in. He rubbed his eyes, tired as all hell.

He looked ahead, walking in the aisle, and noticed Ling had curled up in her seat. He hadn't seen her since they had made the deal and mapped out what would be happening at the Zaibatsu headquarters.

She looked much more vulnerable than she used to. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her like this since she last visited months ago.

Her head rested against a pillow, and she had brought her legs up onto the seat, her arms wrapped around them, knees bent. She was resting peacefully, her back leaning against the side of the cabin. Even now, he still thought she was beautiful. In fact, he'd missed the way she looked when she slept.

It was hard to admit it, but he was still in love with her. He finally knew what made Hwoarang so mad at him. In fact he couldn't blame him.

He stood there, watching her, when she opened her eyes. She looked at him sleepily for a moment before finally composing herself.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey." He replied.

"You're not tired?" she asked.

"I am, I just can't sleep."

"It's understandable." She said.

There was an uncomfortable silence, with the two of them not really looking at each other.

"Do you really want to do this?" she asked finally.

"It's the only way I'll ever be free of all of this. You know that." He said.

She sighed.

"You don't have to detach yourself from everybody. It is possible to be happy with people you know."

"Maybe. But what's to stop them from coming back again? The Zaibatsu wants me for what's inside me. It won't be over until I'm dead." Jin said, sitting down in the seat next to her.

He looked down at his knees, when her hand came across his cheek, caressing it. He turned to look at her. She smiled at him, her head still resting against the pillow.

"That's why I'm here." She said.

He hesitated for a moment before moving towards her, pulling her in for a kiss. She yelped in surprise before leaning into the kiss, slipping her tongue into his mouth.

He pulled her over off the seat, letting her straddle him. Ling wrapped her arms around Jin's neck, sucking on his tongue as their lips continued to stay locked.

He started to move his hands up her sides, softly running his hands over the fabric of her shirt. She moaned a moment, before her hands left Jin's neck and started fumbling with her own shirt.

"Shouldn't we go someplace a little more private?" he asked in between kisses.

"Yeah, maybe we should." She said, stopping only to say that.

She wrapped her arms around his neck again as he picked her up by her legs, dragging her off to another room.

5:29:11 – Hwoarang dropped to his knees, directly in front of Zesiro Mabinko. There wasn't much he could do either – his hands were cuffed behind his back.

"What did you think you were going to achieve? Delaying us from making it to Iowa?" Mabinko said, laughing.

"Yeah. It was. What the fuck is it to you?" Hwoarang said, not really sure how he should feel.

He hated being helpless. It made him want to throw up all over the place. It wasn't about the being handcuffed on a plane, and probably facing death within the hour. It was the fact that there wasn't any way he could help Ling, if she really was in trouble, and there was no way to stop Mabinko from getting to Iowa.

"What the hell are you hoping to do there with a fucking Internet server? Why do I have to go? You know what you want, do it your own damn self and kill me already." Hwoarang said.

"Oh come now, where would the fun be? You do what we ask, we keep Ling alive, and we act as the watchdog. We'll make sure nobody interferes with your work." Mabinko said.

Hwoarang shook his head, sighing. "You really are a sad excuse for a human being, you know that?"

Mabinko suddenly slammed his knee against Hwoarang's face, sending him to the floor. A small smack of blood splattered against the wall behind him. Hwoarang coughed against the cockpit's carpeted floor.

"Insult me like that again, and maybe I will just kill her anyways." He said.

"How do I get this thing?" Hwoarang asked.

"Like I said, it's in the Holiday Inn. The server is in a secret compartment somewhere in the building." Mabinko said.

"That tells me almost nothing. If want me to get this for you, you'll have to do better than simply telling me that it's in a hotel. How many rooms are in a hotel again?" Hwoarang snapped, turning himself onto his back.

He fought to sit up, finally dragging himself on his ass to lean up against the door to the cockpit.

"How about I give you more information once we're on the ground?" Mabinko said, turning around to sit back in the co-pilot's seat.

"Do I have a choice?" Hwoarang retorted.

Hwoarang waited for Mabinko to sit back down. Once he did, Hwoarang started to stretch his hand down to his back pocket. His middle finger touched the edge of the denim on the pocket, his hand stretched to it's maximum. He arched his body upward, all the pressure on his abdomen, allowing him to pry two fingers into the pocket. They clasped to a thin, wavy metal piece. He relaxed his body, the fingers pulling out a lock pick.

He sat against the wall, working on the handcuffs.

5:34:02 – The helicopter flew at lightening speed, blowing past an overpass near the interstate.

Urahara looked at his watch, hoping they would get there faster than this. But then again, he knew this was as fast as it was going to get. He could make the outline of the road and the overpass, the road a dark blue in the light. The sun would be up shortly.

"Stop looking at your watch, you're making me nervous." Glendale said, her voice chirping in over the headset.

"You're nervous? You don't seem the type." Urahara said.

"You didn't hear me say this, but I hate to fly." She said.

"Safety isn't an issue on these things."

"I know. I just don't like heights."

"Well, Chicago's got plenty of them, sweetheart. I think we're going to be seeing plenty of them today." Urahara said.

"Sir? I've got a call coming in for you." The pilot said.

"Patch it through." Urahara said.

He waited a moment before speaking.

"This is Urahara." He said.

"Urahara, it's Secretary Heller."

"Yes, sir?" he said.

"I hear you're on your way to Chicago?" Heller asked.

"Yes. Evidence is pointing us there. We got our hands on an email from one of the men involved with the bomb. It appears they're also interested in a server located in Amana, Iowa, but they ultimately plan on meeting up in Chicago. I'm going to guess they're looking for a mid day to early evening detonation. The latter would fit, sir. It would maximize causalities since it's rush hour." Urahara said.

"I understand. You said they were interested in Iowa?" Heller asked.

"Yes, sir. I've got my best man on it. He's tracking the terrorist's plane. I also believe they've got Hwoarang Doo San on board, captive." Urahara said.

"Well, we better pray that either your man gets to the server first or Hwoarang doesn't give it to them."

"Why's that?"

Secretary Heller paused.

"Sir?" Urahara asked.

"The server is part of a relay network that houses the location of specific activation key cards for the nuclear bombs that have obsolete detonation systems." Heller said.

Urahara's mouth hung open as he stared out at the brightening landscape.

"Launch cards? So even if they have the server information, they won't have the means to set off the bomb?" Urahara asked.

"That's right. But we have to assume they have the means to get to it quickly, and they must know the key card to that particular bomb is in Chicago."

"It would fit with a detonation inside the city. We're almost to Chicago now. Once there, we're going to coordinate with CTU and set up a perimeter around the downtown corridor. We should assume this card is somewhere downtown, where it's crowded and protected." Urahara said.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea, just make sure you divert some of your resources to the rest of the city. I wouldn't be surprised if that card is lying somewhere in some run-down part of town." Heller said.

"Yes, sir. I'll call you once we get into CTU."

"Right." Heller said, hanging up.

Urahara rubbed his eyes. He was so tired that he actually had to think about when he got up the day before. It was early then too, but just after sunrise. At this point, he'd been up for almost a day. Didn't look like he was going to be getting sleep any time soon either. He sighed and looked at his watch, when he suddenly felt a light slap on his arm. It was Glendale. She saw him.

"Sorry." He said.

5:42:29 – Alex's car burst over a small incline in the road, catching a small amount of airtime. At this time of night, he was surprised that only one cop had tried to chase him, but let him go when he realized that Alex was easily outrunning him.

Now, he was about sixty miles out, if not less. His car was a real piece of work. It looked fairly plain from the outside, but you could tell he had invested a lot of money under the hood. Along with all the NOS in his trunk, the car itself could be considered a speeding time bomb. If the car crashed into anything, it'd probably make a crater from the explosion.

The phone on the dashboard rung, and he hit the button on the side of his earpiece. He went to the Bluetooth attachment after the difficulty of answering the last phone call he got from Sam, trying to keep him focused. The monotony of the roadway was making him drift off, nearly causing an accident at one point when he crossed the bridge over the Mississippi River into Iowa.

"Yeah?" He said.

"Alex. How far away are you from the location?" Urahara asked, the helicopter noise prominent in the background.

"I passed into Iowa about five minutes ago. I'm going pretty fast, topping out at 150 MPH."

"How much gas do you have?"

"Enough. I'll have to refuel once I get there, though, and that's if the car doesn't die on me by the time I stop there." Alex said.

"Well, I should let you know about the server. Secretary Heller told me that it carries the locations of detonation key cards for obsolete nuclear bombs inside the United States. That means, if Amstel's men get a hold of the server, they'll know where to look, and they could set off the bomb." Urahara said.

"And I'm guessing that this card is somewhere in Chicago?" Alex asked.

"Most likely. I pray that Hwoarang hasn't agreed to help them."

"No. He wouldn't. It's not like him. He'll go along with them until he has an opening to escape, and he'll take it." Alex said.

"Okay. Call me when you get there. Good luck." Urahara said.

Alex hit the button on the earpiece and continued to speed down the interstate, the sun edging its way over the horizon behind him.

5:47:12 – The train had started to slow down, beginning to make it's way into Union Station in Chicago. It had sped through a decent amount of the city, seeing as there was practically no traffic on the rail lines at this time of the morning. In about an hour, though, the Metra trains run by the Chicago Transportation Authority, also known as CTA, would be running for commuters.

Inside, Ling and her men were grabbing their briefcases and small duffle bags filled with equipment from the overhead compartments. Jin stood in the aisle, throwing on his jacket.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now arriving at Union Station. Again, Amtrak apologizes for the sudden change to 'express run'. Our conductors will be by shortly to provide passengers with assistance to other trains that can take you to your destination." The engineer rambled off in an overly apologetic voice.

The train lights flashed out momentarily, the sign of the train changing tracks to those belonging to the station itself.

"Are we ready?" Ling said, a messenger bag over one shoulder, and a briefcase in one hand.

Her men simply nodded to her in response, the three of them still checking over their bags.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Jin said with a nervous chuckle.

He still didn't like the whole idea of infiltrating the Zaibatsu headquarters, but it had to be done.

He remembered stopping there on his way to Peoria, mainly to sign forms that further confirmed the transfer of monies from his selling the Zaibatsu. It was really just a lot of red tape.

But then, all he had done was go to a private conference room on the fortieth floor. He'd never been to the top, where he openly assumed whoever was now in charge was running things from.

Ling's men finished packing their things, and began to walk towards the end of the car near the platform. Jin noticed the conductor waiting there. Ling followed her men, and Jin followed her, still slightly nervous, though he never let it get through across his face.

"Well, here we go." Ling said softly.

It was nice to have heard that, Jin thought. She sounded just as nervous as he was.

5:52:00 – Hwoarang meditated, sitting against the cockpit door. He hadn't done this in what felt like years.

He controlled his breathing, simply trying to come to a logical conclusion of what he should do. The plane was going to land, that much was simple. Mabinko would push him around until they got to wherever the server was. At that point, he could find it and run, probably be killed anyways, or he could find it and turn it over, waiting for one weakness in the system. He didn't know.

He sighed, snapping out of it all. Now he knew why he only meditated when he was working out. It wasn't helping in this situation.

He looked up at Mabinko with a glare. He really didn't have Ling. Yeah, she'd gotten herself into trouble before, but he figured she certainly knew how to take care of herself in a fight.

The handcuffs were long ago undone, he just kept them there, ready to re-attach them in case Mabinko came to grab him.

A curious though then came across his mind – did anyone even know where he was? He guessed he could try to call Alex once he had a chance to grab a phone. But was Alex even alive? He hadn't even seen him since earlier in the night, and at the rate that everyone was dying, statistics would show that Alex would probably be dead too.

He continued to glare at Mabinko's backside. Then, something snapped. A wave of extreme hatred washed over him. His sense of self-preservation was either in overdrive or didn't exist at all.

Hwoarang took the cuffs off of his wrists.

The plane slowly began to descend, just as the captain grabbed the radio.

"We're making our approach, please stay in your seats, seatbelts on, until I turn off the cabin lights. We'll be landing any minute now." He said.

Hwoarang then bounced up off the floor, grabbing Mabinko from behind, wrapping one arm around his neck. The surprise gave Hwoarang an edge, forcing Mabinko to bend backward. With his free hand, Hwoarang grabbed the gun from Mabinko's holster and pressed it against the larger man's back.

"Say hello to your brother for me." Hwoarang said, squeezing the trigger four times.

The bullets came flying out through Mabinko's chest and abdomen, lodging themselves in the fuselage of the cockpit, blood splattering everywhere. Hwoarang dropped his body and noticed the look of utter shock on the captain's face. Hwoarang looked into his eyes for a moment, just before the captain reached for his own gun. Hwoarang reacted quicker, shooting the man in the face within a split second. The captain slumped over the steering panel, the plane starting to take a dive.

Hwoarang nearly fell over from the sudden change in angle, but worked his way to the door. He opened the door in the hallway, seeing two men trying to rush to the cockpit. Hwoarang jumped at the first man, head-butting him with severe force. The blow immediately knocked the man out, almost definitely breaking the man's nose. Hwoarang pushed past him, and grabbed the other man around his neck. He started to resist, fighting against Hwoarang's grip. Hwoarang threw the man into the wall behind him, then pressed up against him, kneeing him in the back, and slamming an elbow into the back of the man's neck. An ugly snap sounded, the man immediately going limp.

Hwoarang pushed his way towards the man cabin, three more men sitting in the chairs, hanging on for dear life. Hwoarang raised the gun and shot them all, emptying the clip. The men slumped in their chairs, not even having a chance to grab their own weapon.

Hwoarang dropped the gun and opened a small closet, grabbing a parachute. The plane began to shake violently, sending Hwoarang up against the wall of the main cabin.

He threw the parachute on, tying the fasteners together to make sure it wouldn't come off mid-jump. He threw the goggles on over his eyes, and moved towards the door. He grabbed the handle on the door and threw it upwards. The locks unlatched, and Hwoarang kicked the door, sending it flying out into the air. Outside, the ground was visible, coming up faster than he thought it was.

Hwoarang jumped out the door, quickly wrapping himself into a ball. His arm smacked against the wing of the plane, just having missed being sucked into the engine.

Hwoarang controlled himself using a little body English, and pulled the ripcord, waiting for the blow that would be coming.

The parachute deployed perfectly, and then came the wake from the plane's engines, blowing it towards the direction of the plane. It wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought. Since it was a small plane, the wind would most likely guide him further north, but not by much.

He looked below him. The interstate was close by, maybe by a few hundred yards. Beyond that he noticed two hotels, one across the street from the other.

He pulled on the cords of the chute, the ones that helped change the angle and pitch of the chute itself. He guided himself towards the overpass that would take him towards the hotels.

In the distance, the sun was coming up, sending a nice wave of warmth that Hwoarang knew he would feel once he landed safely on the ground.

He turned his head, hearing a nasty crash, which followed with an explosion. The plane had finally landed. At least now, he was alone. There was no threat here. He could find the server all by himself.

The road was coming up, and Hwoarang braced himself for impact. He landed with a thud, trying to run himself to a stop. The speed was too much for him, and pulled him forward. Hwoarang rolled to a stop, lying in the middle of the road.

He detached the parachute from the backpack, sending it flying off into the distance. Hwoarang started to laugh. He couldn't believe how he had pulled that off. Not more than six minutes earlier, he was still sitting in the cockpit of a plane that now certainly would never fly again.

He did it all on a whim.

Hwoarang stood up, and got rid of the backpack. He looked at the two hotels, trying to decide which to go to. To the right was a hotel that didn't look like it had any guests at all and to the left was a Holiday Inn, which had a parking lot that seemed packed.

He watched as a man with orange hair exited one car, a Jaguar. Hwoarang blinked, feeling almost like he was seeing things. Reassured that he was not, he started running towards the hotel.

5:59:27 – Ko Yon-ha walked into the Holiday Inn with a reassured cockiness.

He saw the explosion from the plane, and seemed confident that even if Hwoarang escaped, the bastard wouldn't be here in time to see him leave with the server.

The lobby of the hotel seemed cozy. To the north was a hallway that led to the pool, to the left was a restaurant (Ko noticed a faint aroma of cinnamon rolls), and to the right was the front desk. He crossed over to the right, walking up to the wooden countertop of the desk.

A young women with blonde hair came to the desk.

"Yes, how can I help you?" she asked.

Ko looked at her nametag. It read "Mandy".

"Mandy. Hi, my name is Ko Yon-ha, I work for the state department. I need to speak to your manager." He said, handing her a business card.

5:59:57…

5:59:58…

5:59:59…

6:00:00…


End file.
